JANET ADEYEMI
Popular Nigerian singer Adekunle Almoruf Kosoko, better known as Adekunle Gold, has shared his experience of being trolled online after revealing his struggle with sickle cell disease.
The “Rodo” artist mentioned that he faced attacks and abuse on social media following his disclosure.
In a recent interview with CNN, the father of one explained that he decided to raise awareness about sickle cell disease after finding the courage to speak out.
He emphasized his mission to make people living with sickle cell feel “safe.”
“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 my struggle with sickle cell in 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,” he said.
The singer mentioned that he has known about his diagnosis since childhood, and that he frequently put himself in situations that made him ill as he was growing up.
“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 sickle cell to define me.”
