Like King David, Mama Fasoyin remains a renowned gospel music singer with inspiring messages whose lyrics were spiced with great melody.
The philosophical and spiritual imports of her songs are still relevant and impactful on people’s lives.
Almost 85 years in age, what are the lessons learnt from her by the young ones especially gospel music ministers?
Take a little breathe to hear about her love life story as a young and beautiful woman working at Kingsway Stores at a tender age.
‘’I was attracted to so many people. But when you have a very strict background, there is no problem. My brothers were so hard on me when I was young. I could not stand with any man; they would kill me. I was afraid of all of them. When I closed at work and came home, they would look at the time for me. There was fear in me because they were disciplined. They disciplined me and I feared them. That is why I was able to go through that period without messing up. Severally, my friends used to make jest of me calling me ‘araoko’ (village girl). They said, maybe my brothers would marry me and all sorts.’’
Despite that, she said, ‘’The person who approached me when I was teaching was the man I eventually married to. I remember that it was my father that took me to the village when I was going to teach there. He handed me over to the village head and said, ‘that is my daughter. I want you to take care of her for me’. So, when this man came to me and said he had interest in me, I said no, that I still want to further my education. Even when I came to Lagos, he traced me to Kingsway Stores then. I still insisted that I wasn’t ready for marriage whenever he brought up the issue. He said, okay, but he did not stop coming until I agreed. Many men wanted to give me money to marry them. I was afraid to take it because my brothers used to say that once you accept money from a man, it means you have promised that man something’’.
What a lesson?
What then is the significant of their chartbuster and evergreen album, ‘Odun lo sopin’?
‘’That song, Odun lo sopin was recorded in 1979. I feel fulfilled that after many years, the song is still being played. I know that it is the grace of God. We waxed 25 records and that was number three. I give God the glory, because there were many records waxed by other people that have long been forgotten. But by the special grace of God, what we did many years ago is still impacting people’s lives. It is so fulfilling’’.
What about monetary success?
‘’When we were doing the music, what we had in mind was to propagate the gospel. We were not recording because we wanted money. We were very glad that we had an avenue through which to propagate the gospel. We were not thinking about money at all. But after a while, especially after the third album that became instant hit, the marketer called us and said we had royalties to collect. We were surprised. We decided not to collect the money. One, we were all married and working. Two, we were constantly reminded that money was capable of breaking people up. We told the marketer to convert it into a bus and musical instruments for our use. We did not handle any money. We only asked for tools that would help us do our work smoothly, because we were always getting invite to events and programs. That was how we operated’’.