Reggae legend, Majek Fashek, who is currently struggling with drug addiction says he is scared of going to rehab after his last experience in America. According to the singer who spoke with Encomium magazine, rehab weakens a person’s mind. He said his first contact with Rehab in the US really helped him“Yeah, America really helped me. Most American superstars go to rehab because they take cocaine, heroin and the likes which makes them “too high”. So they have to go to rehab. Rehab helps calm their brains after which they go back to their business. For me rehab was helpful. I was high but after rehab, I got my contract with Top Gun International. That’s Bob Marley’s label. I got it through his wife Rita Marley and an American woman, Cassandra. Rehab calms the brain so it won’t explode. It calmed me.” he said Asked if he ever stopped taking hard drugs after Rehab, Majek says.
“I am scared of Rehab. Let me tell you what I did to escape the rehab. God gave me different knowledge of Orisha, babalawo knowledge. My ancestral knowledge which is what I am using right now. I now drink akpeteshie. It’s the orisha idea i got.”he said
Asked if he preferred akpeteshie (ogogoro) to rehab, Majek said
“I prefer akpeteshie in the sense that the white man’s drugs weakens your mind, might not even be able to have sex” he said.
Majek who has been separated from his wife, Rita, for a while now says he will accept her back if she apologies to him
“It’s up to my wife. If she loves me. She is a woman. She won’t live forever. Nobody can except God. If she loves her children, she will reunite with me so I can help them. It was the celestial church that confused her. They gave her wrong vision about me. The celestial church can’t try me anyday, anytime. I will attack them. I am Laura, not celestial. I will burn them. I am equipped spiritually. you no see wetin i put there(points to a praying mat with a huge bible and an Islamic talisman on it). If she’s she will apologize. And when she does, I will take her back” he said.
Fashek need not compare USA to Nigeria. What he needs is a sustainable period of detoxification (weaning of ogogoro) and any other hallucinogenic drugs he might have using to ‘escape’ from his reality. Yes, drug therapy does have its long-term side effects and often, many patients relapse and get back to drug use; many even much harder and more frequently than they used to, pre-rehabilitation. The Nigerian climate offers a wide range of alternative therapies at very nominal cost and if there are philantrophists around to support his healing process, then he is in luck. Fact remains that he not only need the psychological healing, he needs the socio-pathological healing as well. Nigeria is an ideal environment to accomplish this because there are people around him who wouldn’t look down on him, as well as those who may be able to facilitate recreational and vocational access for him. His marital issue is an integral factor to his healing journey and this could be mediated by close friends and family – but not yet, not until he is able to settle himself in the healing journey.
His spirituality should not affect his acceptance of therapy:socio-medical, just as what he believes should not adversely impact on his cooperation with professionals responsible for his treatment.
I wish him a positive recovery.
Olubunmi Akinade-Ahmadou
(Humanistic/Integrative Psychotherapist, London).