How I found out my mum was a witch – Charly Boy, artiste
Mrs. Oputa, the mother to Charly Boy, who is also called ‘Area Fada’ was aged 101.
In this chat with SUN newspapers, Charly Boy had this to say about his mum, her death and burial.
What was your first reaction when you heard that your mum had passed on?
I was mad, upset; I cursed her a little in my mind! I felt she
chickened out because we had discussion about death a couple of times.
Sometimes she would say ‘oh, I want to go, I want to go’ and I would say
‘go where?’ I would pretend I didn’t know what she was saying and ask
‘okay, you want to go back to the village?’ She would lament: ‘Look at
me, nothing is left of me, I want to go’. Then I would reply, ‘you want
to go and leave me here? ‘You can’t dump me with all the things I am
fighting. You have to stay so you can be giving me ammunition’ and then
she would smile. I once posted a social media message where I prayed ‘I
am not God, I don’t know the time but I wish mum could die in my arms’.
That was the picture I had.
My wife called me to say mum was breathing funny. Then I was in the
Philippines on my way from New Zealand. I had spoken to her a day before
and she asked when I was coming back. I said the next day, so she said
‘buy me this and buy me that’. When my wife called me the next day, I
thought she was trying to trick me. I just broke down and cried but I
had to pull myself together and start calling people. I called my wife
and asked, ‘is she dead? I can deal with it’. But she said ‘no she is
not. Come back you will meet her’. Two hours after that conversation,
she passed on. I have done my grieving and I don’t know whether there is
still more to do because I haven’t buried her. I am not going to play
macho and say I am a man, I won’t cry. If e hungry me I go cry.
Ever since she passed, have you seen her in your dreams?
I have séances. I don’t know if you are aware of my virgins. I have
people who help me to locate dead people. I had two virgins around at my
dad’s burial and most of the stuff that happened was as a result of
communication with my father. When I talk about virgins, I am not
talking about it in the physical sense, but the purity of the heart. My
virgins are people who God has blessed with one gift or the other, but
they are very few. It takes one to know one. So, unless you know, you
will never know.
When is the burial?
December 28. I realized that when you get to that age, you desire death because wetin you wan do again?
And that was why she was always saying she wanted to go. They always
know they are ready for it and I think mum didn’t want me to see her
dying. Somehow, I felt she tricked me because we had this conversation a
lot of times and I told her ‘you are not going anywhere until I do all I
want to do for you’.
Can you share some of the greatest moments you had with her?
My mother is a witch–
A witch? Which coven did she belong to?
No, she was a good witch (laughter). And how do I define a good
witch? It’s somebody who through intuition knows when things are about
to happen. They are futuristic. You can’t be the mother to Charly Boy
who stayed in the womb for 11 months and you were able to turn him into a
man without being a Madonna. So, when I say my mother is a witch, this
is what I mean. And she loved publicity even at the age of 101; nobody
liked publicity more than my mum. Mum was a drama queen. Sometimes, she
came to watch me gym after which she sat down and talked, and we yabbed
ourselves. I noticed mum liked me doing videos and posting. She always
asked ‘have you posted that thing? Bring it, let me see. Where are the
comments?’ She wanted to read and that blew her mind! I read her the
comments and she would then run her own commentary. I was just looking
for things to make her happy till the end. It was the same with my dad. I
had to make restitution to my dad for the things I did to him between
age one and 30. At a point, it got so bad mum was trying to take me for
deliverance. But mum was the first to have hope in where I was going,
and I remember dad would say ‘oh, you are the one spoiling this boy.’
And mom would say ‘no, this is not an Army Barracks.’ Because of me,
there was always a quarrel between mum and dad.
What was the greatest advice mum gave you?
Mom was always about showing love and doing good (to people). It was
always about looking out for everybody. Everybody has the ‘ying and the
yang’, the good and the bad but she would tell me, ‘don’t dwell too much
on the dark side. Concentrate on the good side and see how you can help
them’. Mum loved humanity. It was after she died that the magnitude of
it all struck me. Now, I understand why mum was always broke. It was
because she was giving everything she had out. She said if you can
identify an ounce of good in anybody; magnify it. Mum was a woman who
knew when the gateman had headache, and when he was worried. My entire
staff mum knew by name and had personal rapport with. She was from the
Onomonu family and her sister was the richest in Oguta back in the day.
Her family has massive love for humanity; it is who they are. I have
heard many incredible stories and that makes me proud of my heritage,
pedigree and where I am coming from. I know the tree I fell from, I am
not on the same level with a lot of people.