Biography: Lesedi Badisang

My childhood

I was born on 9 September 1993. My mother left me with my Granny because my stepfather did not want to look after kids that weren’t his own. I never saw Mommy again until much, much later.

My granny was poor - she had no job. She had no job because her tummy was swollen like that of a pregnant woman. Touching her tummy felt hard as rock. I was young and Granny was old. Neither us nor the doctors seemed to understand what was wrong with her. The doctors said that in her X-ray showed clouds and a rainbow –this really set my young imagination alight. Granny tried to be brave but at times when she suffered too much Granny couldn’t help talking about the pain that was her stomach.

How we survived I do not know. I used to go into the veld with some farmers goats and cattle. I even grazed a few donkeys. I would keep the animals together while they were feeding and took them to drink. I learnt that cows chew the whole day by watching them. I learnt that you can’t always take a donkey to water let alone make them drink. Goats are crazy and will eat anything. The worse time of day was when the kids came out from school. I would climb trees so that they wouldn’t see me. They used to tease me because I didn’t go to school. They used to tease me about my clothes. They used to tease me about not having shoes. They used to tease me lots.

The end of the month was the time when sometimes the farmer gave me money and sometimes gave me stories about me using their expensive water and eating their food. I was young –I did not understand money nor the fuss they made about water and food.

There were days when Granny and I ate pigeon and pap. There were days when we ate okra and pap. But there were also days when we ate salt and pap. When the farmer gave me money, I gave it Granny. She loved buying sugar because she liked tea… Ah, yes, and there were days when we ate sugar and pap! On bad days there was no pap.

One night I woke up and for some reason started praying to God that He should look after my Granny. I told Him that she took good care of me. I told Him that I understood that it was time for her to go. I got up from my blankets on the floor and climbed into bed with her. I felt her nose but there was no air. I put my ear against her chest but there was no heart anymore. I ran to where my uncle stayed to tell him that Granny was gone. He chased me back home telling me to go to bed, telling me I was lying. The next day he realized he was wrong, Granny was gone.

How I survived I do not know. I remember getting up at 3am in Francistown. I had to make a fire every morning. The fire was used for bath water for the family I worked for. The fire was used to make breakfast for the family after the water boiled, but first I had to take the hot water to the bathroom.

Once the tub was full, I woke up the parents to bath. When they were done, I woke up the kids. I bathed the kids even though the eldest was older than me. The best was last - bathing the baby. I couldn’t play, I had to be quick because next up was preparing breakfast.

The kids had to be fed before the taxi came to fetch them. One morning I was rushing so much that the pot of pap fell on my foot. I am scarred till this day –when it happened I was severely reprimanded for not being careful.

After preparing breakfast came watering the garden and tending to the vegetables. The baby on my back always cried more when I swept the yard with the grass hand broom. On days when the baby was quieter, I really enjoyed the beautiful patterns I could make on the ground with the broom. I could carry on forever because I really dreaded what came next…

I made the beds and picked up the pajamas and cleaned the house. I had to get done with the seven-room house or I could get fired. The baby’s nappies had to be washed and on washing days the family’s clothes had to be clean on the line early enough for it to dry. The baby used to get tired before I started with lunch. I could rest a bit while she was sleeping before starting to cook except for the days when I had to iron. The iron was a heavy black contraption that was heated by coals from the fire. If I wasn’t careful the coals would spill over the sides sometimes blackening the clothes and my heart with frustration because of the screaming that would follow when they came home.

I used to sing songs to myself while working. I don’t know who taught me the song, but I always felt touched when I sang: “Do not pass me by”. It made me decide to attend our local catholic church. During this time, I decided to give my life to Jesus. The sisters taught me to read bible. They saw my love for music and often allowed me to lead the singing. Later I even lead bible study when there were no clergy around. I was at my happiest when I was at church! None of the kids who attended church with me teased me about my clothes. The church even gave me some clothes.

Over time I worked for 15 different families doing housework and looking after babies but the one thing that remained constant was church and my love for God.

It was during this period that I finally got the opportunity to go to school. One of the teachers paid my school fees and another gave me food in the afternoon. I got up early, did the chores, went to school and then back to work to finish my tasks and cooked dinner. I did homework at night when my employers were sleeping.

I loved school and was very lucky to always be chosen to sing, dance, model and act. When they gave me prizes for the acting the other kids would tease me because I never had special clothes for special occasions –only the same dress that I wore every day.

One day I heard that I had aunties that were alive. The person that told me about them gave me a phone number. I thought if I could live with family that things would be easier. I left Francistown for the big city of Gaborone. When I got to Gaborone I called my aunty and she came to fetch me.

How God uses me

My music career

In November 2013 I came to South Africa. I found a job as a cashier. In 2014 I started work on a Gospel album that was completed in February 2015. The album is called: Take it to the Lord in Prayer. I completed my first video, A call to Prayer (a song from my album) in April 2015. During 2015 and 2016 I regularly sang at Gospel events in the Western Cape and Gauteng. I received the awards for Best dressed artist and Best CD sleeve from the Amazion Kings Gospel Music Awards organization on 3rd November 2018.

My first book

I decided to study further in 2016 because I do not even have matric. It was during the Christmas Holiday in 2016 that I decided to write a book. The book, “God’s love is unconditional” was published in November 2017.

Although the book contains parts of my life story it isn’t an autobiography. It focuses on God’s love. I only use my life story to show how God can make a difference in anybody’s life. I started life being disadvantaged in many ways, yet God uses me to show others how much He cares! The parable about the sparrows that God feeds them daily and that God cares much more for each one of His followers than any sparrow is really true! God loves us and He loves to help us.

My 2 nd book: “Memories” will be published in August 2020.

My inspiration

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words, what they don’t tell you is that there is one word that created billions of worlds each with billions of pictures and that word is: Jesus!

My contact details

I’m on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lesedimusic and my email address is: lesedibadisang@gmail.com.

God has blessed me with a life that is a testimony of his love and grace. Despite growing up disadvantaged I have blessed. Although I hardly have any education, I have released a gospel CD called Take it to the Lord in Prayer in 2015 back then in Cape Town and I have written a book: "God's love is unconditional" I published it in July 2018. In March 2020 I released my single-track Title: When I'm In Your Eyes ". I have appeared in many radio interviews and on Daily Thetha on SABC1and 1KZN TV. I have been featured in Christian magazines and Daily Sun newspaper, Tshwane newspaper and Isolezwe newspaper. Currently, I have more than 15000 Facebook fans. I have just started a YouTube channel called Lesedi One Two One.

I am currently helping the needy (Homeless people 86 in Total) I take the little that I get from my book sells. I have been feeding the hungry since 2014, I really do enjoy helping people this is the biggest heart desire that I have.

It will be fantastic if I could share my testimony because I know that it brings hope to people. Maybe I could also talk a little about my book and other projects.

Love, Lesedi