Renowned Ghanaian Highlife musician Kwabena Kwabena has opened up about a painful chapter in his life, sharing how a battle with depression left a lasting imprint on his emotional and physical well-being, but ultimately led to spiritual growth and healing.
In a recent interview with Doreen Avio on Daybreak Hitz, the artiste spoke about the internal turmoil he endured, admitting that it brought him to the edge of giving up.
“I’ll share this to inspire every individual out there who’s going through any form of depression or any situation that has actually gotten you to a point where you feel like giving up. Yes, I must confess, there was a period in my life when I went through a serious moment of depression,” he revealed.
The depth of that darkness, he noted, affected his actions, especially on social media. Looking back, Kwabena Kwabena now finds some of his past posts almost unrecognizable.
“Very serious, I mean, those who are close to me know. I went through it to the extent that certain posts that I made… Today, I look at and I ask myself, oh my God, did I make such a post?” he said.
But while the experience was distressing, it also became a mirror for self-awareness. The musician noted how the toll of depression was evident not just emotionally, but physically as well.
“People also read all kinds of meanings into how depression has distorted my figure a little bit. It distorted my looks because I have videos and photos of those days and I look at photos of recent times. It gives me a clear understanding of what I’ve been through and it gives me a clear understanding of what depression does.”
He said that during this difficult period, one anchor helped keep him afloat: prayer. And at the center of that spiritual lifeline was his mother.
“I will encourage everybody out there that the key to getting out of that situation is only one thing and it’s prayer. On that note, I would like to say a big thank you to the woman that carried me, my mother. My mother has been a great pillar behind me in terms of prayer.”
Kwabena Kwabena credited her persistence with helping him maintain a connection to God through the most difficult days.
“She will call me every morning and ask me if I’ve prayed. So, there’s a song on my EP called ‘Enso Nyame Yɛ’. That song actually is a whole story about everything that I’ve seen in life and how you can always render everything onto God and in His time, He will make things beautiful,” the ‘Bue Kwan’ composer concluded.
