Award winning Nigerian dancer and choreographer, Kafayat Shafau, popularly known as Kaffy, has shared a deeply personal account of her family’s journey from affluence to hardship, revealing the struggles that shaped her childhood.
Speaking on the Honest Bunch Podcast, Kaffy recalled growing up in a wealthy household that frequently hosted Nigeria’s music legends, including King Sunny Ade, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, and Ebenezer Obey.
“My parents were in the league of MKO Abiola. They were the first people to spray dollar at parties. You would hear Sunny Ade and Barrister sing their praises. These people came to our house every weekend,” she said, noting that her parents, Alhaji Shafau and Alhaja Alake Lakonko, were once among Lagos’ high-profile socialites.
However, things took a drastic turn when her family lost its fortune. Kaffy described how her father chose to rebuild from scratch, relocating to London where he worked as a floor cleaner, while her mother struggled to adapt.
“There was a lot of times when living with our months there was no food for weeks and months. Hunger is mentor. If you want the body to sustain on only water because water is the only thing you see, it would. I drank garri for seven months without break, there was no Kwashiorkor,” she revealed.
The dancer recalled moments of her mother went through emotional distress at home. “She would have psychotic breaks ,put all of us in the centre of the house, saying, ‘You are the reason why… your destiny should start providing for me because you’re the reason I am not anywhere in my life,’” Kaffy recounted.
Kaffy’s story paints a picture of resilience, survival, how hardship shaped her path before her rise to fame as Nigeria’s foremost dance icon.
