Ghanaian-Romanian musician Wanlov the Kubolor has likened his experience at Ghanaian boarding schools to life in an American prison, saying his time at Adisadel College made incarceration in the U.S. feel “like a hotel.”
Speaking on Prime Morning’s Throwback Thursday segment, Wanlov recounted how the strict and often harsh conditions at school unexpectedly prepared him for prison life abroad.
“When I went to prison in America, I felt like I was in a hotel because of the kind of hustling I had gone through in Adisadel,” he said, adding that the food and treatment at school were far worse than what he encountered behind bars.
He recalled some meals in the school dining hall being so poor they occasionally contained wall geckos and other unwelcome surprises.
“We used to eat turkey and rice that gave everyone stomach problems the next day because the turkey was expired,” he recounted.
Wanlov noted that, although he grew up in a peaceful home where his father rarely disciplined him harshly, the boarding school system shaped him into someone who would later punish his juniors—a behaviour he later realised was not part of his true nature.
Drawing parallels between the two environments, he said the strict schedules, limited freedom, and coping mechanisms in Ghanaian boarding schools mirrored life in prison.
“When I got to the American prison, the inmates thought I had been there for years because of how I handled things. But that was just the training I got from secondary school. For me, prison was like a normal holiday,” he said with a chuckle.