In an exclusive interview with SoundCity Divas, Empire Mates Entertainments (EME) 1st lady, Niyola candidly spoke about her horrific sexual abuse experience while growing up. The singer in a matter-of-fact interview reprises her painful experience in the following statement:
“I have been molested quite a number of times. Thankfully, I haven’t been raped. I have been molested by both people I never imagined would molest me…and obviously strangers as well. And it wasn’t once, it wasn’t twice. It wasn’t three times. But what helped me was that I started to try to figure out at that time why anybody would want to do that to me or to any female. I realized it was cowardice. A lot of things could be done to prevent the situations and protect yourself. I remember for a very long time, I would never visit guys. And when I started to live alone when I was in school, you would never come to my room for any reason. For a very long time I was paranoid. But I realized that if you share your experience with people, your fellow women, you’ll find that it’s not that big a deal that you can’t come out & talk about it because it’s not your fault that someone tried to molest you. Such people should actually be punished and brought to book.”
Although, victims of sexual abuse or molestation often find it difficult to speak about their experiences. However, sharing such painful memories, as difficult as it may sound, is often the road that leads to healing for many.
