Acclaimed Nigerian singer, Tiwa Savage has opened up on how she tried to commit suicide during her teenage years.
Savage made this known in a chat with Ebuka Obi-Uchendu for Black Box . She recounted the bullying she went through in high school in London after moving to the United Kingdom at the very young age of 10.Tiwa Savage recounts leaving Nigeria abruptly at 10 to London and all the bullying that followed suit in high school.
“When I got to school, it was horrible and I had an accent. My first day I clearly cannot forget. I got to school late and my teacher couldn’t pronounce my name. She then asked why I was late to school and I said ‘sorry ma there was go slow.’ Everyone started laughing. I was teased so badly,” she said.
“They use to call me ‘African girl’ ‘Fufu’, ‘We heard your food smells badly’ it was so bad that I literally tried to kill myself two times. I was depressed and bullied. They would flush my hair down during lunch break. At some point, I use to have a police escort me to the bus. I wanted to bleach and started growing my hair. It was really terrible.”
The songstress also talked about her family, especially her mum who she described as a very typical African parent living in London.
“I found it out initially, I didn’t like her because she was tough on me. Not that I didn’t like her but it was weird. I was really close to her, I could tell her everything. I could tell her things you shouldn’t even tell a Nigerian mom,” she said.
“I would want to go out for parties all night and she would be like ‘be back by 9 and I’m like the people won’t even be there yet. I’ll be so angry. I want to bleach because I hated my dark skin, she caught me and threw everything and I was like what is your business. I think it was between 14, 15, and 16…I was really insecure.”