A day with KSA

By Charles Okogene
The exact date and year, I can no longer recollect. However, all that I know now is that it was a day the undisputed King of juju music, the oldest juju music musician who is still standing strong on the music scene at 70 plus, the man that the international Time Magazine once described as ”master guitarist’, the sencro- system man who was about the first artiste from Nigeria to get a foreign record deal (that was when he was signed on to Chris Blackwell’s label, Island Records), the recording company that internationalised Bob Marley and his brand of reggae music, hosted a crop of seasoned entertainment journalist then that included, Tope Olukole, of Tribune, the late Amadi Ogbonna of Vanguard, Shina …of Tell Magazine, Ayo Lawal of PMNews, among others in his Ondo country home, the capital of Ondo State and spoiled us ‘silly’ not a little like the pay off line of a popular Lagos based hotel.
The mission then according to Olukole who facilitated the visit, was to interview the King at his sprawling estate of over 50 bungalows meant for renting and for his ‘very’ large family; and the interview turned out to be an in-house party where everybody mixed and mingled with other but mind you, there was no ‘bush meat. ‘
That was the day I met face to face with the accomplished musician’s heart of gold, hospitality, benevolence and humility for the first time. Hitherto, I had related with him through his manager (Charles, forgotten his second name now) then, don’t know if he is still managing the act, from a distance like one musician once sang. That God is watching us from a distance. KSA, I can safely say, was one of those who populised the moniker, ‘Duke of entertainment”, first given to me by my colleague at Fame Weekly then, Mr. Oscar Igusi, now based in Enugu.
KSA not only granted us a lovely interview, slaughtered a whole cow that was made into barbecue and ‘asu’ made popular by his people of Ondo. The first time I tasted the meat was in Dopemu residence of the late Kenerry master himself, the late Dr. Orlando Owoh, another Ondo gift to music and who had a unique voice. KSA not only took us through a tour of the estate, but to a story building painted in Nigeria’s colours, green and white colours before we took our leave of him with his heavy reward that I cannot mention the amount here now.
Such is the life of KSA, if one is lucky to meet face to face with him; because getting to have an audience with him is as difficult as a camel passing through the eye of a needle!