Oga Otumala is from the Southern region of Nigeria in Africa. His father died during the civil war when Oga was 6 years old, and he was the only one of his siblings to be allowed to go to school. Because of the civil war in the country, soldiers would raid the schools, and he had to hide his books under a tree. He would return later to find them again, and study in secret. No music lessons or instruments were available to him, so he crafted his first guitar out of bamboo and thread when he was nine years old, and he began to write music.
His dedication to his forbidden studies paid off when someone in his school got him an entrance exam to Cambridge, he passed, and received a scholarship. After Cambridge, he wanted to study theology, so he got a work-study scholarship to Carver Bible School in Atlanta, Georgia. He also worked as a gas station attendant in a hard neighborhood, and was robbed at gun point 14 times.
He slowly saved enough money to buy recording equipment so he could start to share his music with the world. Word got out that he had expensive equipment in his home. Some men broke in, handcuffed him to his daughter, held them at gunpoint, and began to steal his hard-earned equipment. His neighbor heard the racket, called 911, and showed up in time to stop the thieves. A few years later, his wife and two daughters were in a terrible car accident, and he lost his four-month-old daughter in the accident. His wife and other daughter suffered lacerations and other injuries, but they were healed.
In Oga’s words, “Humanly speaking, I should not be here now, but it is only by the Grace of God, that I’ve survived.”
Credit: Zenworks Productions
