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Interviewer
What were you doing on the street?
Knowledge
I remember moving from chip shop to chip shop. I had, you know, it's one or two places that were just random places going to friends, house friends that were not even in school as well. And the only time I mostly be you be the only time you see me in school is maybe school at lunchtime when we're playing football. Then I'll go because everybody wants me
Moscam
to be on their side.
Knowledge
So then that was the only time I even go to school. Just lunchtime, just to play football. Then we're not going to the class. So, you know, there became a time to say to that I really want to be a footballer. And in fact he helped me.
Moscam
Wow.
Knowledge
Yeah, he helped me. He started writing letters to various clubs to give me trials. Colchester, Colchester Football Club. Football Club, Arsenal Football Club. Because we live closer to Arsenal qpr. It's quite most of the London teams. My father actually wrote letters, posted letters for me to get trials and majority of them we did get response back, you know, so this is something that he did, he did for me and I was, I appreciate it so much. I remember, you know, one time even I had trials at Queens Park Ranger. That was 1986 and that was one of the cold winters in the UK. My father will come with me at 8 o' clock in the morning, all the way to 6 o', clock, standing there in his jacket, all that memories. I'm like, wow, Daddy, you just did that for me. Yeah.
Interviewer
I mean, with what, 14 siblings?
Moscam
Yeah.
Interviewer
What number are you in the list of siblings?
Knowledge
I think I'm number.
Moscam
Gosh, number 11.
Knowledge
Okay.
Moscam
Yeah, I'm number 11.
Knowledge
Okay.
Moscam
Yeah.
Knowledge
All my siblings are gonna kill me.
Interviewer
Did that have time for every other sibling? Just as he did.
Knowledge
He did that at time and he
Moscam
fought about each and every one of us.
Knowledge
You wouldn't, you won't say that way,
Moscam
but yes, that had time for everybody,
Knowledge
every one of us. That's what I'm saying. If I sit down here, I think how 14 siblings ended up in the United Kingdom, that's not three or four.
Moscam
All 14 of us ended up together in the United Kingdom.
Knowledge
And no, no, just being in the United Kingdom, giving us the opportunity to go to school to further our education.
Interviewer
But then, okay, so the time you finally dropped out, when did you realize that now football is not actually going to work?
Knowledge
When I, when I was, I got actually, I got told I'm not, I'm not good enough to be a footballer. I was, I was with, I managed to sign what you Called YTS form at the time.
Moscam
YTS meaning youth training scheme with Watford Football Club. And that's only for a period of two years. And the final year, I just called into the office by one Mr. Tom Wally. Now I can't forget his name.
Knowledge
And he just said, you know what we're looking for.
Moscam
The journey ends here. Just like that.
Interviewer
How old were you at the time?
Knowledge
I think 14. Wow.
Moscam
Yeah.
Knowledge
Yeah.
Interviewer
How did you feel?
Knowledge
I think I was. I wasn't old enough to understand what
Moscam
was actually happening to me in terms of.
Knowledge
I was disappointed. Yeah. But I was also thinking, there's gonna
Moscam
be another chance somewhere else.
Knowledge
Yeah.
Moscam
Honestly, I was that good of a footballer, I believe that I could get another chance.
Interviewer
Okay, so from 14 to 18, what happened?
Knowledge
I started working.
Moscam
Actually, after that, I worked in McDonald's.
Knowledge
Okay.
Moscam
Yeah.
Knowledge
It wasn't my first job.
Moscam
My first job was I was doing paper rounds, just delivering newspapers early in the morning, earning seven pounds a week.
Interviewer
While you were still in school?
Moscam
Wasn't still in school yet, right? It was, yeah. Most. Most young boys at that time were doing that, you know, delivering newspapers. Yeah.
Knowledge
And then, yeah, after that, I started working in McDonald's.
Moscam
And now when I started earning some money and I decided to start buying records with the money I was earning
Knowledge
from McDonald's because I wasn't paying rent,
Moscam
obviously, mom and dad, so just.
Knowledge
I was misusing the money. It wasn't a lot, but.
Interviewer
So there are some of our. Well, our parents. A lot of my parents are going to be watching this, right. And they probably around the same age as you, and then they are thinking, you know what? Like, I was life. They are reminiscing about how life was those times, you know, talking about the newspapers and it being so cold. I think those times used to be really cold.
Knowledge
Very cold.
Interviewer
And the sort of life you had as a young person there. What was one of the most beautiful memories between that age of 14 and 18 hit.
Knowledge
The freedom that you had a freedom. You didn't.
Moscam
You had no response.
Knowledge
You know, you're not responsible to anything. You know that freedom that I had no bills to pay, nothing to worry about.
Moscam
You don't worry about sending money back home.
Knowledge
I don't even think there was no mobile phone for you to worry about anybody calling you. No. The freedom at that time was beautiful, you know, no responsibility.
Interviewer
Then how did you used to stay in touch with some of your friends back home with that?
Knowledge
I never.
Interviewer
You never did.
Knowledge
Until I came back to Ghana, I never had any connection with any of my Friends.
Interviewer
Okay, now you've made money from McDonald's. Some small money.
Moscam
Small money, yeah.
Interviewer
Now talk me through the first venture you decided to start.
Knowledge
I started to buy equipment, musical equipment. Because I did like music at the time, even once I was here in Ghana where we're living in the suit. We were surrounded by two nightclubs.
Moscam
So obviously right in the middle of two nightclubs. So every night you just hear music, playing music. Also I was into music, so I started buying musical equipment. Little speakers, little amplifiers here and there. And then obviously I was buying records as well, you know, to play just
Knowledge
for myself, just to own something. Yeah.
Moscam
So that's what most of my money went on.
Interviewer
What was the plan?
Knowledge
Buying all those things just for me, Just for me to have it as myself, something to do. It was. I had no vision. I didn't know what it was going
Moscam
to lead up to.
Interviewer
During those times as a young, an 18 year old or 17. Let me just take it back to 17. 17 year old in London. What were some of the activities that a lot of black people used to do within our community?
Knowledge
It wasn't a lot. I mean there wasn't a lot we
Moscam
could have done except for going to youth clubs. You know those days youth club was
Knowledge
very, very popular or hanging out with friends on the street.
Interviewer
There were no community hangouts like Ghan coming together.
Knowledge
No, no, that wasn't, that was not there. No Ghanaian nightclubs, no Ghanaian restaurants. No. Why is that generation was not ready for that or that generation wasn't made to that. That in fact that generation was the generation that's coming to the diaspora. Work and send money back home.
Moscam
That's what it was like.
Knowledge
You know, people were doing morning cleaning, people working as nurses or whatever is to is working and sending back up money back home. So it wasn't about building what we have now.
Moscam
We have various nightclubs, we have various restaurants, we have various sports places you could go.
Knowledge
That wasn't the case at that time. So community hangouts was not in fact the community hangout I remember was either
Moscam
you going to church with your parents
Knowledge
or it's a funeral and you following
Moscam
your parents, you go into that.
Knowledge
That to me was more of a hangout.
Interviewer
So there was no like what we have today, you, you guys just indoors, outdoor playing football, just activities, youth clubs, church, funeral. That was it.
Knowledge
That was it. All right. Church and funerals played a major part
Moscam
in a lot of us growing up back then. I mean we all know about Ghanaian funerals, although it's a funeral is also it's a part. It's a part. Yeah.
Interviewer
So yeah, okay, yeah. But then what was the transition from that to becoming a dj?
Knowledge
I had a very good friend of mine called Moscam.
Moscam
Most Comfort is a very good friend and he was a DJ as well. But Knowledge is a dj. Moscow is also a producer. He was producing for one or two UK artists at the time. So in one of our meetings, I remember going to his house and I saw him with all his equipment that he had, the techniques, turntable, the Sunlab mixer, the microphone, everything else. And he was doing his thing.
Knowledge
So I just trying to say, look, Moss, teach me.
Moscam
I want to be a dj, you
Knowledge
know, because I was, I was buying equipment, but I was just buying it for myself.
Moscam
And then after seeing what he's done in setup, I said to him, look, I want to be a dj, so teach me. So that's how I got learned how to be a DJ through Moscow, who was the same person as well. Muskamp managed to take me to a group of guys, which leads to my next discussion, which is 90 his squad, whereby there was at the time those four Ghanaian guys, which grew up to be six Ghanaian guys. We decided to come together all our equipment, let's put our equipment together and start renting out to various people to use our equipment for funerals.
Knowledge
Funerals and also for. For parties. I mean back in the day, that
Moscam
time, one of the. The biggest music scene at the time was a music scored acid house. Acid, like the acid Acid?
Knowledge
Yeah. Okay.
Moscam
Acid house was the biggest thing at that time. It was the biggest thing we could. We, you know, it was, it was driving the uk, you know, the UK dancing was crazy. You go to places and used to be a place in Kings Cross called Bradley Studios, you know, so we used to take equipment there for them. Most promoters that were doing acid house music will rent an empty warehouse and they need equipment.
Interviewer
Connected Minds podcast.
Theme:
This episode of the Konnected Minds Podcast, hosted by Derrick Abaitey, delves into the coming-of-age experiences of African immigrants in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s. The segment, "No Community, Just Survival," explores how Derrick’s guests navigated life with little communal support, focusing instead on working hard, sending money back home, and gradually building new identities through music and entrepreneurship.
“The only time you see me in school is maybe school at lunchtime when we're playing football. Then I'll go because everybody wants me to be on their side.” – Knowledge [00:09]
“My father will come with me at 8 o'clock in the morning, all the way to 6 o' clock, standing there in his jacket... Daddy, you just did that for me.” – Knowledge [00:53]
“If I sit down here, I think how 14 siblings ended up in the United Kingdom… All 14 of us ended up together in the United Kingdom.” – Knowledge [01:44]
“The journey ends here. Just like that.” – Moscam quoting Mr. Tom Wally [02:32]
“My first job was I was doing paper rounds, just delivering newspapers early in the morning, earning seven pounds a week.” – Knowledge [03:06]
“You didn't, you had no response... no bills to pay, nothing to worry about. I don't even think there was no mobile phone for you to worry about anybody calling you.” – Knowledge [04:09]
“Until I came back to Ghana, I never had any connection with any of my friends.” – Knowledge [04:29]
“Buying all those things just for me, just for me to have… I had no vision. I didn't know what it was going to lead up to.” – Knowledge [05:12]
“No Ghanaian nightclubs, no Ghanaian restaurants... that generation was the generation that's coming to the diaspora, work and send money back home.” – Knowledge [05:44], [06:00]
“The community hangout I remember was either you going to church with your parents, or it's a funeral and you following your parents…that to me was more of a hangout.” – Knowledge [06:22]
“I want to be a DJ, you know... teach me.” – Knowledge [07:23]
“The biggest music scene at the time was acid house... Most promoters would rent an empty warehouse and need equipment.” – Moscam [08:05]
“That generation was the generation that's coming to the diaspora, work and send money back home.” – Knowledge [06:00]
“He did that time and he thought about each and every one of us… that's what I'm saying.” – Moscam [01:37]
“The freedom at that time was beautiful, you know, no responsibility.” – Knowledge [04:15]
“We decided to come together, all our equipment, let’s put our equipment together and start renting out to various people…funerals and also for parties.” – Knowledge [07:28]
This segment paints a vivid picture of survival and adaptation among Ghanaian immigrants in the UK. Without the robust communities seen today, their experience was driven by the imperative to work, send money home, and seize scarce opportunities, often finding self-expression through music and entrepreneurship. The perspectives shared illuminate both the hardships and the creative resilience of the era—reminding listeners how far the community has come and the importance of building something lasting for the next generation.