₦airaland Forum

I am answering the queries that I have to answer. I am not partially blind, I am fully blind. That is the only query I have to answer.

Others about how I fight? Really is this all my life story is going to be reduced to? How good of a fighter I am. Search for my name on google and you'll see my claims are true.

babonboard, I used to fight with my hands, my legs and other parts of my body. I'm not proud of being a troublesome person at one point in my life. It was just a way to prove my strength and gain respect from my peers.

From 1975 until 1980, I tried to get into tertiary institutions in Nigeria with no success. Even the College of Education would not admit me because they couldn’t deal with a blind student. I knew God had plans for me and never gave up. In 1981, the then Oyo State government sent me to the United States of America on a scholarship for further studies. I was admitted by the then Arkansas Enterprises for the Blind. I was there so that I could be taught different types of machines in order for me to compete successfully with my sighted academic contemporaries. I was at the Arkansas Enterprise for the Blind for two semesters. I did not stop there; in 1982, I was admitted by Philander Smith College authority for my degree program in special education. I was at Philander Smith College from 1982 to 1985. I successfully completed my degree in three years instead of four. I graduated with Magna Cum Laude. During my time at Philander Smith College, I was a member of Who is Who Among American Colleges and Universities. I was also a member of Alpha Cappa Mu, an academic honor society. My thanks will always go to God Almighty and Dr. Joseph Amprey, the Vice President of Academic Services at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, who got me a scholarship with which I did my graduate program at Howard University in Washington DC from 1986 to 1987. I successfully completed my masters program in three semesters instead of four semesters.

After the completion of my degree program at Howard University, I had the opportunity to teach blind people like myself, and sighted too. I taught Braille to blind people, and English and literature to sighted people for many years. I taught at the public school setting. Many of my students are now attending the University of the District of Columbia. In 1998, I started my PhD program at Gallaudet University. Without any iota of doubt, it became crystal clear to me that the journey there would be rough. Without dancing around the point, my experience at Gallaudet University soon became so traumatic it seemed my doctoral program might end prematurely.

Destination can be changed, but destiny cannot be changed. So after some time passed, the difficulties subsided. I took my qualifying exams, and I passed them excellently well. After the completion of my course work, I sat for my doctoral comprehensive exams which I also passed brilliantly well after extensive review. It is my personal belief that there is always a light at the end of a tunnel.

Thank you for all the good words. I'll answer a few questions and conclude my story soon.

I am Dr. David's friend and to answer the questions about how David is able to use the internet and this website in particular: He is able to use the internet well but I sometimes, help him with a few things like typing and proof-reading everything he has written.

Without wasting words, I encountered so many problems as a blind child. I could remember when my elder sister brought her husband to my parents in the village; my late mother had to hide me so that yet-to-be husband might not know that there was a blind person in the family. It was a taboo to be blind when I was growing up. Not only that, it was my mother’s custom then to bath me during the muslim Ileya festival. The truth of the matter is that, I would not take another bath until the following Ileya festival. I remember very vividly, one day as we were eating I simply said to my mother that my meat was small. The only thing I had on my head was the sound of a big stick which she hit me with. My head swelled up to the extent that I could not sleep throughout the night just because I said that she gave me a small piece of meat.

As a blind child it took the grace of God for me survive the ordeal of childhood. To be candid, my mother wished that I had died. Whenever my mother wanted to travel to Iwo from our village with the rest of her children, she would not take me along with them simply because I was blind. When I was very young I always wanted to go school. One thing is certain, if the time is not fully ripe for God to move in the life of any human being, there is nothing that particular person can do. At a certain time in my village, in order for the teachers to register little children for the new academic year, they have to go to all all the surrounding villages with drumming and dancing in an attempt to attract those little children. Because I love the way they were singing and dancing, I always wanted to be in their midst. As much as I would like to be in their midst, the teachers always pushed me out simply because I am blind.

During the time I was a child, I loved iyan (pounded yam). When the Red Cross Society members came to my village to take me to school, I refused simply because nobody would prepare  pounded yam for me,  An English proverb says the work of God is incomprehensible. Those Red Cross members came to my village three times before I agreed to follow them to school. What I could conclude was the simple fact that the hand of the Lord had been in the affairs of my life. After all, I was not the only blind person then. If not for the mere fact that God’s hand had been in the affairs of my life, they did not need to come to the village to get me. It simply means that God had predestined it that the time to go to school had finally come. Otherwise, they should have looked for another blind person to take to school. In actual fact, my childhood was highly remarkable in the sense that I usually walked about naked simply because I always fought with other children in the village. No matter how quiet a child was, unless he or she did not come across me, he or she must receive sound beating. In the process of fighting with other children, my cloth would get cut into pieces, as if the tailor was ready to sew a new piece of cloth. At that time, my mother would use a bag of flour to sew a new cloth for me. As thick as the bag of flour was, in a month or two it would get torn again. When my mother got tired of wasting money to get me a new cloth, I started walking about naked. This is to let all readers of this know how stubborn I was as a blind child. The mistake people usually make about blind people is that blind people are quiet. Being blind or visually impaired has little to do with people’s behavior.

Whenever I fought outside, my mother knew right then that I would be the guilty one. Without stating the cause of the fight, my mother would give me a very sound beating. As a very stubborn child, that did not stop me from fighting. I would still go outside to fight. During my primary school days, I encountered so many problems. I remember one day, I went to my teacher  to obtain permission to go to the toilet or latrine. The man gave me permission to go. After I finished with the latrine, I went back to the class with the hope of continuing my studies with my classmates. As I was trying to open the door of the class, I was highly astonished with what I saw. I could not open the door of my class. I did not know that my teacher had conspired with my classmates to close the door of the class so that I might not have the opportunity to listen to his teaching that day. He told my classmates that if am allowed in, I would still lead them academically. Why should a blind person be leading the class? As soon as I saw that the doors leading to my class had been shut, I quickly went to report the matter to the principal of the school. Before the principal arrived, he had opened the doors.

Before I knew what was happening, all the teachers from other classes had gathered in my class. As the principal of the school tried to investigate the matter, my teacher told him that I cursed him, which actually was not true. When the teacher heard what he said, there were highly infuriated. Without even attempting to hear my own side of the story, they started blaming me. This is to make it plainly clear to readers that there is no crown without a cross. It is unfathomable to me that, as a blind person who is struggling with all tenacity to be successful in life, that people could be so brutal.

What I started to encounter among those who could see at the early part of my life is beyond my imagination. My teacher who was supposed to be proud of me, and be my friend, because I was doing well in his class became inimical to my progress. In fact, God gave me the wisdom to be leading those who had sight. What my teachers failed to realize is the simple fact that disability does not mean inability. It is an irony of life to see that a teacher had punished me for my God given wisdom.

To be continued,

Thank you pharoh, ccollins and other readers.

Realistically, this life is like a pendulum that swings from side to side, no one knows when and how it will fall. Life itself is a catastrophe. To be candid, I quickly realized very early in life that, to be successful in life requires perseverance, God’s grace, and determination. There is no secret to success, but by working hard. As a young blind child, I grew up in a polygamous house. It is quite obvious that things are not always easy in such an environment. When my blindness started, myself and the child belonging to my father’s second wife also became blind. Her own child died in the process. As a matter of fact, I will continue to be grateful to my dear mother Mrs. Onikepe Akanji who is now deceased for taking care of me during that difficult state of my life. There is no doubt in my mind that people adviced her to get rid of me. That woman stood her ground and took proper care of me.

During that time, she had the opportunity to poison me. I thank the Almighty God that my mother did not take any negative step. When I finally started to go to school, my mother was the only one taking care of my feeding, clothing, and all other things that could make any human being stay alive. Ignorantly, my father would take care of other children, but left me unattended. During the time I was going to school, my father did not believe that I was going there to acquire knowledge. He thought that I was going to school to while away the time. In a society where people are stark illiterate, one cannot rule out such a thought. What changed my father’s mind was what happened during one of the end of year activities in my primary school. During that particular year, I acted in a play titled "Juvenile Offenders." In that play, I played two roles; I first of all acted as a teacher and later as a judge. My father would not attend any end of year activity no matter what was happening in the school. That year as the Lord will have it, my father came to my school for the first time. He came when it was my turn to act my own part in that play. I acted my part very well to the extent that those who were watching the play were impressed and they started “spraying” me with money. Not only that, when the time came for the principal of my primary school to call the names of those who did well academically from primary one to six, my name was called to be the first boy who performed exceptionally well in primary six. From that time, my father joined my mother in taking care of me, and I became his favorite.

It is of paramount importance for me at this juncture to begin the story of my life in earnest. Life is a place full of struggles. As a blind child, I started my own struggle in life at a very early period. My philosophy of life is that physical disability is not a barrier to a willing soul. With much hullabaloo, I became blind when I was an infant. Historically, I was born at Bode Osi, a village near Iwo in Osun State of Nigeria in West Africa in the year 1955. Under stressful circumstances, I did not start my primary education until I was ten years of age. I started my education at Ogbomosho Blind Training Center in 1961. Ogbomosho is a town in Oyo State of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. I was there from 1961 to 1963. During the same year, I was sent to my parents at Bode in order to continue my primary school education. I was at Bode District Council School from 1963 to 1966 when I successfully completed my primary school education. I did not even stop there; in 1967, I attended Osodi Vocational Training Center for the Blind where I learned advance Braille and telephone operation. I was there from 1967 to 1968. In the year 1969, I attended Iwo Catholic Secondary Modern School to learn typing. I was there until the end of 1970.

In 1971, I started my high school education at Ibadan Christ Apostolic Grammar School at Aperin Oniyere where I successfully completed my school certificate papers with flying colors. I was there from 1971 to 1975.

To be continued,

(Questions are allowed too).

I am David Akanji, a blind Nigerian writer. I would share my story in this topic and also answer as many questions as I can.

Provided below is a link to my newest book on google: A Study of Blind Education in Three States of Nigeria

http://books.google.com/books?id=gJ4NIeAXClYC&dq=trafford+david+akanji&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=GsdzC-Id2Q&sig=Hgpkbx_WdEgWmzWS1O-3iMUwhMg&hl=en&ei=aMbvSrGGEMnNlAfjoIj2CA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false