Stabroek News Sunday

Cancelling Majah Hype

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Recently I came across the name Majah Hype. Apparently this individual was born Colin Nigel McPherson and he is described as a Caribbean comedian who is known for his skits on social media.

This man irked Guyanese recently. I saw many people on my Facebook page’s friends list cursing him out. Some in written words and some in short videos. Some wrote long intellectu­al essays condemning him.

His crime? He said Guyana was not geographic­ally part of the Caribbean (some have pointed out that the Caribbean Sea is not only made up of islands but also mainland territorie­s of Belize, Suriname, Guyana, and French Guiana). He and the others in the short clip that has been shared over and over were initially discussing the running joke between Guyana and Trinidad about chicken curry versus curry chicken.

He basically said why argue about that when Guyana was not even Caribbean and that Guyanese were basically accepted by the others. I believe that was what irked most of the people who objected and they made it their duty to let him know. He apologized (some said it was not a real apology, but I have not seen it) but also claimed that he had represente­d Guyana over the years and he did not understand that backlash.

I had never heard of Majah Hype until last week. But what piqued my interest in all of the drama was the fact that some were questionin­g why people were still supporting him when he was a known abuser.

Further searching revealed a December 2020 video posted by his ex-fiancée Kirby Farrell in which she spoke about being abused by a man whom she did not name. Majah Hype had been her longtime partner.

She later gave an interview naming him and giving even more details and about her horrific years as his partner. In February of this year he was jailed for 33 days in the US on charges of simple battery and felony, and making ‘terroristi­c threats and acts’. The name of the victim in this case was not released but it is believed to be Farrell.

Media reports also indicate that he was previously arrested in January 2021 following an incident involving Farrell. At the time, he was charged with kidnapping, making terroristi­c threats, and simple battery. He was later released US$15,000 bail. The man also spent some time behind bars at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center outside Atlanta for the same incident.

After listening to her and reading some more about what he allegedly did to her I cannot comprehend how so many Guyanese (a lot of them women) were still following him. It had to take what he said was a joke (Guyanese said his tone was condescend­ing) about us not being geographic­ally part of the Caribbean for them to cancel him.

This was what Kirby had to say in her video.

She started off offering an apology to her family, her son and her friends.

“I detached myself from the people that loved me the most for a long time. I owe you guys the biggest apology. What I have been going through the average person doesn’t go through in a lifetime. It has been a secret for a very long time.

“Hiding abuse is a full-time job. You have to detach yourself from your loved ones so they don’t know and I did that for a long time. I protected someone that abused me for a long time.

“Tonight is about my healing. Tonight is about me taking my power back and no longer protecting the person that has been abusing me.

“... I am ashamed because I let it go on way longer than it should have. I am ashamed of myself because I went back so many times. All the reasons that I went back it wasn’t good enough, they weren’t good reasons. I went back because me going back meant I loved you or I was proving that I loved you by coming back or that I loved the kids. Or just trying to prove people wrong that I am not a gold digger that I am really here for you.

“But all of that stops now. The lies, protecting people it stops now. Tonight is about my healing and me getting to a better place and starting with me being honest with myself and the people around me.

“I have been, I have been through a whole, whole lot of things and it is a really, really tough thing to keep that a secret. So I really want to start by apologisin­g to my family for disconnect­ing myself and pretending that I was okay and going ghost and not answering Facetime.

“The manipulati­on and everything it stops now. I am putting an end to it. The bashing, the slandering of my name to people, people inboxing me and telling me that I really didn’t love the person and I was there for this and that reason. Every time that I left was for a damn good reason and if me leaving because I am being abused means that I don’t love you then so be it.

“I am going to love myself more than that person. Imagine, imagine having to hide your bruises and you being battered from your family. Imagine after being abused and assaulted you have to console the person that hurt you because they are distraught, they want to hurt themselves. So now you don’t even have the chance to heal, you don’t have the chance to be upset.

“You have to now console that person, imagine being bruised and battered, imagine going through all of those things and you still have to have sex. You are still expected to be delightful, like there is nothing wrong with you when your face is unrecogniz­able. Imagine letting people know in your circle what’s going on with you and their first question is ‘what did you do?’

“Like if there is anything [her voice cracking at this point] that I could have done to deserve that. That’s disgusting to me. That’s disgusting. Because it didn’t happen to me once, twice, three, four times. It happen too many times, too many times.

“So when you guys, the viewers and the fans think that you know me or what I have been through, have some respect for yourself, have some respect as a woman, as a mother or a father. I am somebody’s mother and I didn’t deserve any of it so how dare you ask me what I did?

“There are a lot of people contacting me about a lot of crazy things. I have never ever cheated in my relationsh­ip, not one time, not one time. So when you get caught doing what you are doing your first defence is to turn it around on me.

“You have a huge platform and you think that you can just destroy me. But I am taking my power back tonight. It stops tonight. The slandering of my name, the abuse, the control, the manipulati­on, the sexual abuse I am putting a stop to it tonight.

“So you can continue to pretend who you are but I know the truth and I am not keeping any secrets anymore. I am not protecting anyone. Now is the time for me to protect myself, protect myself and make up back with my family and my friends that I have cut ties with to hide this secret.

“So moving forward, I definitely don’t want to speak about it again. I definitely don’t want to keep reliving what I have been going through for the past couple of years. I just ask that you guys respect what I have been through and I am not going into hiding like I did the last time. The last time that I left there was a huge bashing on social media about me. We are not doing that anymore because I know the truth. I know why I left every time that I did.

“So, moving forward I pray that you

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