Dancehall artiste Ali Yusuf popularly known as Arrow Bwoy on Friday recounted his difficult upbringing in Nairobi’s Huruma estate, which was punctuated by his parents fighting on a regular basis.
Born to a Luhya father and Ugandan mother, Arrow Bwoy said his parents were not always in good terms leading them to separate at a certain stage.
Speaking to K24’s Betty Kyallo on Upclose, the musician said it was difficult watching his parents fight, and once had to come up with an awkward way of separating them.
“While in class six I found them fighting in public and I did not have the ability to separate them. I took a stone and threw it between them, I was not targeting anyone. The stone went through and hit a wall. They panicked. They looked at me and everyone was like you wanted to hit me. (Nikiwa class six, nilipata wana-fight nje, sikuwa na nguvu ya kuwa-separate so nikachukua mawe nikapima kati kati sikuwa na-target mtu yeyote ikapita ikagonga ukuta wakashutuka. Wakaniangalia kila mtu akaanza ulikuwa unataka kunipiga)”, said the musician.
From that upbringing, he said he learned that it is better to sit down as couples and iron out any differences, without having to fight it out.
Arrow Bwoy is riding high with various dancehall hits, among them Digi Digi which has over 5 million views on YouTube, Jango Love, Dodo, Ngeta, Shikisha and Radio Love being featured by Nadia Mukami.