My Mum Was A Witch – Charly Boy

There have been some revelations about Margaret Ntianu Oputa, the mother to Charly Boy, who died at age 101 in October 2019.

In this interview with Saturday Sun, the singer opens up on the life and times of Madam Oputa, including his regrets and plans for the burial among other issues.

What was your first reaction when you heard that your mum had passed on?

I was mad, upset; I cursed her a little in my mind! I felt she chickened out because we had a discussion about death a couple of times. Sometimes she would say ‘oh, I want to go, I want to go’ and I would say ‘go where?’ I would pretend I didn’t know what she was saying and ask ‘okay, you want to go back to the village?’ She would lament: ‘Look at me, nothing is left of me, I want to go’. Then I would reply, ‘you want to go and leave me here? ‘You can’t dump me with all the things I am fighting. You have to stay so you can be giving me ammunition’ and then she would smile. I once posted a social media message where I prayed ‘I am not God, I don’t know the time but I wish mum could die in my arms’. That was the picture I had.

What was your first reaction?

My wife called me to say mum was breathing funny. Then I was in the Philippines on my way from New Zealand. I had spoken to her a day before and she asked when I was coming back. I said the next day, so she said ‘buy me this and buy me that’. When my wife called me the next day, I thought she was trying to trick me. I just broke down and cried but I had to pull myself together and start calling people. I called my wife and asked, ‘is she dead? I can deal with it’. But she said ‘no she is not. Come back you will meet her’. Two hours after that conversation, she passed on. I have done my grieving and I don’t know whether there is still more to do because I haven’t buried her. I am not going to play macho and say I am a man, I won’t cry. If e hungry me I go cry.

Ever since she passed, have you seen her in your dreams?

I have séances (a meeting at which people attempt to make contact with the dead, especially through the agency of a medium). I don’t know if you are aware of my virgins. I have people who help me to locate dead people. I had two virgins around at my dad’s burial and most of the stuff that happened was as a result of communication with my father. When I talk about virgins, I am not talking about it in the physical sense, but the purity of the heart. My virgins are people who God has blessed with one gift or the other, but they are very few. It takes one to know one. So, unless you know, you will never know.

When is the burial?

December 28. I realized that when you get to that age, you desire death because wetin you wan do again? And that was why she was always saying she wanted to go. They always know they are ready for it and I think mum didn’t want me to see her dying. Somehow, I felt she tricked me because we had this conversation a lot of times and I told her ‘you are not going anywhere until I do all I want to do for you’.

Can you share some of the greatest moments you had with her?

My mother is a witch

A witch? Which coven did she belong to?

No, she was a good witch (laughter). And how do I define a good witch? It’s somebody who through intuition knows when things are about to happen. They are futuristic. You can’t be the mother to Charly Boy who stayed in the womb for 11 months and you were able to turn him into a man without being a Madonna. So, when I say my mother is a witch, this is what I mean. And she loved publicity even at the age of 101; nobody liked publicity more than my mum. Mum was a drama queen. Sometimes, she came to watch me gym after which she sat down and talked, and we yabbed ourselves. I noticed mum liked me doing videos and posting. She always asked ‘have you posted that thing? Bring it, let me see. Where are the comments?’ She wanted to read and that blew her mind! I read her the comments and she would then run.