Nashauna Drummond, Staff Reporter

At 6'9" Akin Adaramaja is the centre of attraction almost everywhere he goes - Nashauna Drummond/Staff Reporter

Akin Adaramaja is six feet nine inches tall but does not play for any basketball team. He is a somewhat ordinary Jamaican who gets extraordinary stares wherever he goes.

An attorney-at-law, he told Lifestyle that whenever he enters the courtroom persons who are seeing him for the first time often comment, "you're so tall." His usual response, "We can't all be short." He said that his height is compounded by his name which most persons have a problem pronouncing. "My height is compounded by my name, my name is as difficult as my height," he says with a laugh.

Growth Spurt

Adaramaja said his rapid growth spurt began when he was about 14 years old. "I just shot up unexpectedly. No nick-name stuck because whatever they called me I would just laugh it off. Ada stuck because they had difficulty saying my name. At first it wasn't easy with people looking at me."

Adaramaja has been the butt of many jokes because of his height but he takes them in a cheerful manner. "But what to do?" he asks, "The Bible says a cheerful heart is like good medicine. He recalls an incident when he was at the airport "A little boy said to his mother pointing at him, "'Oh my God he's so tall'. I turned to my friend and said, "Well look at that, people are calling me God now."

When he was about 16 he went in to a lady's shop and she became very upset with him because she thought he was standing on her chair. "'Why are you standing on my chair? Be careful, suppose you fall and break my glass case?" All this time her husband was there laughing and she was getting upset that I wasn't budging, then he told me to pull away the chair and I did and she saw that I was still standing there."

While attending Camperdown High School, he was walking with a group of friends when he felt a few drops of rain. He told his friends that it was raining but no one felt anything and they dismissed it. An hour later it was pouring and they were all drenched. One of his friends joked, "Because Akin is all the way up there, the rain started falling on him an hour before it got to us down here."

On numerous occasions friends and co-workers who needed to reach objects on high shelves would say, "If you had not arrived in time, I would have had to use a ladder."

Adaramaja, who was born in Jamaica (his mother is Jamaican, his father Nigerian), told Lifestyle that when he goes to Nigeria they ask whether all Jamaicans are so tall? On the other hand, when he's in Jamaica, locals say you're so tall because you're from Nigeria.

Flexible

Adaramaja, who is single, added that even though he's so tall, he's very flexible so he has no problem fitting into certain spaces. "I'm very flexible. When I was in Nigeria I drove a Volkswagen. So maybe because I'm so slim I fit into places better than a short, fat person who would not be able to.

However, the only impediment of his height is whenever he's entering or leaving a room he has to remember to bend to avoid hitting his head against the door ledge.