Before Ghanaian musician KiDi became one of the country’s most recognisable voices, he was, by his own admission, a child who kept his parents constantly on their toes.
The singer has opened up about a striking childhood memory in which his father kicked him out of the family home when he was around five years old after becoming frustrated with his repeated acts of mischief.
KiDi shared the story during an interview with Kafui Dey, while reflecting on the kind of child he was growing up.
He described himself as stubborn, energetic and notorious for getting into situations that often left his parents wondering what was going on with him.
His school shoes, for instance, rarely survived his adventures intact.
KiDi said he would take newly purchased shoes meant for school and use them while playing with stones, returning home with them damaged.
“My dad kicked me out of the house when I was about 5 years old, and it was the straw of many things I had done. I was a very stubborn kid; I was notorious. When they bought me a shoe for school, I used the shoe to go and play stones, and by the time I got home, the shoe would get spoilt,” KiDi recounted.
His uniform was apparently no better.
The musician said the amount of dirt on his clothes after school was so excessive that it looked as though he had spent the day in a fight rather than simply playing with other children.
“All kids go to school and play and dirty their uniforms, but the dirt on my uniform, it’s as if I fought with lions,” he stated.
His parents soon came to see the incidents as a recurring pattern.
KiDi said they would often see him return home in a state that left them struggling to understand how he had managed to get into yet another situation.
“Every day when I come home, they would look at me in confusion, and they wondered what kind of child I was,” he disclosed.
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Then came the incident involving his teacher’s waakye.
KiDi recalled that his parents were late picking him up after school one day, leaving him waiting outside with his teacher.
The teacher subsequently sent him to her table to pick up something. But the young KiDi said he did not clearly hear the instruction and interpreted it in a completely different way.
“One time, school closed, and they were late to pick me up, so I was just waiting with the teacher outside. She sent me to go and pick something up from her table, but I didn’t hear exactly what she said. I assumed that she asked me to go and eat the wakye on her table. I went to the class and finished the wakye,” he recalled.
What may have seemed like an innocent childhood misunderstanding to KiDi turned into a serious matter when he got home.
His father, apparently fed up with the series of incidents, decided to teach him a lesson by sending him out of the house.
KiDi said his sister was instructed to remove everything he was wearing before he was told to leave with nothing.
“When I went home, my dad told my sister to remove everything I was wearing. He said I should leave the house with nothing, and since I wanted to be a notorious child, I should go and live it somewhere else,” he narrated.
His family eventually put his church shoes on him before he was sent out.
The punishment, however, quickly became an emotional experience for the young KiDi.
As he walked away from home, he began crying by the roadside. His father then called him back and used the moment to make him confront the reality of being separated from his family.
“They wore me just my church shoes and nothing else and threw me out of the house. When I was walking out, I started crying by the roadside. Then my dad called me back and asked if I saw how I was crying because I was going to miss them,” he noted.
Despite the dramatic punishment, KiDi admitted that the experience did not immediately transform him into a model child.
Instead, he continued with his mischievous ways.
“I didn’t learn my lessons after that because I kept being a notorious child,” KiDi revealed.
Watch his statement below.
