Singer, Adekunle Gold Recounts Criticism Faced With Revealing His Sickle Cell Status

Popular Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold, has opened up on the criticism he encountered after making the public know about his Sickle cell status.

The singer revealed in an interview with CNN, everything that occurred from his childhood battles with Sickle cell before making the public know about it in one of his recent songs.

Adekunle Gold revealed that he has been struggling with Sickle cell as a child, yet he made sure he did everything that a person with sickle cell was not supposed to do.

Speaking further, he stated that he did not allow the sickle cell status to prevent him from having a normal childhood, as he made sure he played football in the rain which made him sick and he also participated in every other play that kids of his age did.

The singer stated that he opened up on his sickle cell status on his song ‘’5-star” and he got a lot of criticism from many, but he reiterated that the reason he opened up was to help other people battling with sickle cell to be able to feel normal and feel that they have a voice.

He said; “I want people living with sickle cell to feel safe, to feel like they have help and support.

“They call you a sickler… Recently, when I talked about it [my struggle with sickle cell] on the song [‘5-star’], I saw a lot of tweets from people attacking and abusing me.

“I’m speaking about sickle cell disease now because I just got the courage to come out and speak up openly about it. A lot of people can’t share their stories like I can.”

“I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life. I knew since I was a child that I couldn’t do certain things. They said, ‘You know you have sickle cell, you can’t play football in the rain just like your peers.’ And I was like, ‘No, I want to play.’ I’ve always been rebellious,” he recalled.

I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life because growing up, I had crises every time. I was in the hospital back-to-back.

“As a child, I constantly put myself in situations that made me sick. And it affected me a lot. For example, I’m not supposed to be in the rain, so what happened to me was that I would have pains in my joints from being in the rain. But I always knew that I didn’t want this thing [sickle cell] to define me.”