Ghanaian singer and songwriter Kwame Nsiah Apau, popularly known as Okyeame Kwame, has opened up about the most challenging part of fatherhood, saying he has accepted that children cannot be taught everything.
Okyeame Kwame revealed that he has come to realise that one is not truly a good father until their children are grown and well integrated into society.
“The most challenging part of fatherhood is accepting that I can’t teach my children everything. I’ve come to realise that you’re not a good father until your children are old enough and well integrated into society. Everything we are doing is trial and error.”
Okyeame Kwame
According to him, he initially thought he understood fatherhood because he had read several books on parenting, but he soon discovered that reality was different.
“I thought I knew about fatherhood. I read a lot of books, but no, I don’t know anything. Some of the things that work for others don’t work for me. So I try to work with my children, and I see that each child is unique.
“For example, my son is very smart but also very divergent. He has a lot of energy like me; he can’t sit in one place for 15 minutes. He wants to move and play, but we want him to learn. I’ve come to see that you can’t teach a child anything.”
Okyeame Kwame
The ‘Yeeko’ hitmaker added that his approach has shifted from instructing to guiding his children.
“I have to find a way to draw out of them what they want to do, which is positive. That’s a challenge because the modern father’s responsibility is to make sure they don’t transfer their fear onto the children. And since I’m afraid for the child, it’s challenging for me to watch him get hurt, but I have to let him, because that’s what he wants to do.”
Okyeame Kwame
Okyeame Kwame on Battle with Dyslexia
The ‘Rap Dacta’ narrated how he battled with dyslexia as a child, and until almost becoming an adult, he could not read or write.
According to him, between the ages of 10 and 12, when most children had long begun to read and write fluently, his story was different, as he could not even recite ‘common’ ABCD.
“I felt like trash because my father loves me, and I couldn’t live up to the expectations of my academic capabilities. At the time, there was this woman in my school who was my mother’s friend. My mother told her that my child loves to play too much, so help us. You know, their concept of helping was to beat it out of me. Even around 10, 11, 12, I couldn’t say my ABCD.
“I could recite from MNOP. So, I have lived with dyslexia to the point of being last in class and not being able to learn. And especially, during my upper primary days, you know, in Ghana, on Mondays, they do dictation and spelling bee. So, if you are not able to spell or add, they beat you in the head. So, every time I was going to school, I was completely scared.”
Okyeame Kwame
He disclosed that he had gone to work in the US and became a manager when his boss read his report and saw that there was a lot of sense in it, but his writing was not accurate. And so, he imagined he could be dyslexic.
According to the Rap Dacta, the boss asked him if he was dyslexic, and that was the first time he had heard the word.
He was offered help by a gentleman who used music to teach him, and that was when he realised that his superpower was in words, not reading and writing.
The father of two thus called on parents to stop beating their children if they show symptoms of dyslexia, and rather take them to a professional for proper evaluation and management.
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