Chuck Fenda opens up about his parents
Artiste says his past was fuel for ‘Eternal Fire’
At six weeks old, international reggae artiste Chuck Fenda was left in the care of his birth mother’s parents. In a recent interview with THE WEEKEND STAR, the entertainer revealed that a reunion with his mother has been years in the making.
“We’re trying to get to know each other,” Chuck Fenda said of his relationship with his mother.
Chuck Fenda, given name Leshorn Whitehead, was born in Brooklyn in the United States of America and raised in Spanish Town, St Catherine, by his grandparents.
He does not know his father and has never had a relationship with his mother. “I have never thought it something to speak about,” he told THE WEEKEND STAR.
Chuck Fenda, also known as The Living Fire, said that growing up he watched other boys “sitting down an’ ah rap with them mother and even dem father. When I asked her about my father, she doesn’t want to speak about who he is. Sometimes I question if she can love me, and constantly remember my grandmother telling me my mother never wanted me,” the artiste said.
FORGIVENESS
“I forgive her because maybe if she kept me, there would be no Chuck Fenda … My life would have taken on a different path. I had to learn how to be a man, too.”
The I Swear lyricist said that the door has been opened to a mother-son relationship.
“The one thing I realised when I first get in contact with her several years ago is that she was tense, maybe it has something to do with how I was produced. But then, she reached out to me last year.”
Chuck Fenda has fathered 11 children who he calls his “best friends”, and wants to remain a strong and successful role model to them.
He said that his recent single, Eternal Fire, is a testament to the struggles, lessons he continues to teach his children and those he meets on his journey, and a cry for justice.
He said, “The lyrics came naturally out of the universe. Like Gash Dem (his popular 2006 release) they came at a time when it’s needed – the world upside down and people stressed – to speak about the conscious livity. It hurt me to hear a youth in the 10th grade saying ‘if a girl nah give me a threesome me nuh want har’; that’s a cry for guidance.”
Scenes for the music video were recorded at the Secret Gardens, the crying child monument in downtown Kingston.
“My babymother, Abigail Walters, gave me the idea and I suppose my spirit led me there also. It serves as a tribute to children whose lives were lost – close to 700 children’s names are on the monument – those who did not have a voice. I feel a sense of responsibility to be a voice for the children especially as I try to be the best parent to my own,” he said.