Fast rising dancehall artist Nigy Boy shares his journey and how he became blind. The singer is helping bring awareness to help the visually impaired community in Jamaica.
Nigy Boy is one of the hottest dancehall acts in Jamaica right now, and many are inspired by the artist, who is blind but living life to its fullest extent. In a video sharing details about his life with curious fans, the artist talks about his disability and reveals that he was born premature and presumed dead until he began to wail as they took his body to the mortuary.
The artist, born Nigel Hector, is known for his hit songs like “Judgement” and “Continent,” which have taken the dancehall space by storm. He’s been seen with celebrities and has been performing and enjoying life. However, there is one unique thing about him- he’s blind and has been so all his life, he reveals.
However, Nigel explains that he was meant to be here as he reveals the remarkable story of his birth.
“My journey with blindness has been a lifelong journey. I was born premature, five months and two weeks and even before I exited the womb, the doctors had pronounced me stillborn. I was birthed, and while I was about to be carried off to the morgue, I cried out and was rescued post haste,” the artist said in a video for Blind Beauty’s Men in Motion Series.
Nigy Boy adds that he spent the first three months of his life in an incubator until he was at a stage to leave. He explains that his blindness may be caused by the doctors who didn’t believe he would survive as a child.
“The doctors still had their doubts, so my eyes weren’t covered in the incubation chamber, and as a result, the light in the incubator burnt out all the oxygen in my retina. I was discharged and taken home by my mother and family members. When I was about six months old, my mother and family members noticed that my eyes had a glassy look. So they took me back to the hospital, and I was diagnosed – they were told I was totally blind,” he said.
As a child, Nigy Boy explains that his childhood was “normal” and not different from any other child. He grew up playing with kids in the neighborhood and was never ostracized. He even gave the same trouble other children his age did.
Nigy Boy attended a preparatory school in Montego Bay, where he is originally from. The artist also paid homage to his old teachers, who created aids and implements to assist his learning.
“The thing though, they don’t know how to facilitate blind and visually impaired individuals, but they try, and while at this institution, I remember vividly the teachers at this institution, they would use construction paper and apply sand and glue to the paper so I can make letters and numbers and trace as a means of keeping up with the rest of the kids in the class, being involved, being a part of the lessons,” he said.
Nigy Boy later attended the Salvation Army for the Blind, where he learned life skills like tying his shoelaces and making his bed, as well as learning to read and write by braille before going on to a traditional high school in Jamaica.
