How Soul Jah Love’s battle with diabetes made him unpopular

Between 2015 and 2016, Soul Jah Love’s music career started getting compromised as he, at times, failed to pitch up at shows with some alleging it was because he was abusing drugs.

This saw him play unpopular among his thousands of fans and some music promoters who thought he was taking them for a ride. But in February 2016, he availed himself for a rare interview with Star FM personality KVG where he took his time to clear the air.

Explaining his constant absence at shows, he said it was due to diabetes, an ailment which he was diagnosed with when he was seven-years-old. While some had concluded that the artiste simply failed to perform as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, Soul Jah Love said that was not the case.

“When I fail to pitch up to a show, it’s usually because my blood sugar levels will be very low. I can’t even give that as a reason because people just say I was high on drugs, which isn’t the case,” said Soul Jah Love during the interview.

He blamed the drug abuse rumours on his face which he said resembled that of a druggie.

“My face looks as if I’m a drug addict. My prayer is that God vindicates me and people who I’ve wronged to forgive me,” he said.

The artiste, whose marriage to fellow dancehall artiste – Bounty Lisa – was always on and off said only his close family and friends understood him and the struggles that he had been through. “People who are close to me know how I live with diabetes especially my manager – Wallace, who’s also my friend.

He’s seen me through it all, supporting me when I was low,” said Soul Jah Love. There was a time when the artiste was on a spree of firing managers, something people felt was due to his drug abuse. But, Soul Jah Love said because of his ‘condition’ which some managers failed to appreciate, he had to fire most of them as they would fail to give him his medication on time.

“My blood sugar levels once went low when I was at an airport in Kenya,” he said. “My manager failed to get an injection for my insulin on time and I really had difficulties stabilising my sugar levels.

“When I fire managers, people think I’m wrong, but it’ll be because they’d have failed to secure such critical stuff on time as I’ll sometimes be on the brink of death.”

Soul Jah Love said Dai Hupenyu Hwaitengwa, an album he released in 2016, was inspired by his battle with diabetes. He said it was a project meant to make listeners appreciate life, especially good health. The Chronicle