Ernie's African Odyssey: The Last Post

At the end of Homer's Odyssey Odysseus is reunited with his father and Athena pops down to prevent another war kicking off. 

Nothing as dramatic at the end of Ernie's Odyssey I'm afraid, just a long rambling post. But unlike Homer I provide a soundtrack, which I think is a plus point for me.

Since we started the journey back in May last year we have visited 55 countries (57 if you include Mayotte and Somaliland) with a few minor diversions thrown in. If I have added them all up correctly we have so far heard from 550 different artists - 350 audio tracks plus 200 videos.

That sounds like a lot but in truth we have barely scratched the surface of all the excellent music to be found in every corner of Africa. If this humble series has done nothing else hopefully it has encouraged you to explore further.

It has certainly had that effect on me. While most of my many African purchases in recent months have been targeted on the countries that had yet to be covered I have also continued to acquire plenty of music from those that we had already visited, some of which may well have featured if I had found it earlier.

So the main purpose of this post is to share some of those late additions with you before we all pack our bags and head home. We will kick things off with four excellent compilations, all of them with self-explanatory titles, some wordier than others.

The short title is "Tabansi Records Sampler". Tabansi was an extremely important label in the 1970s and 1980s, based in Lagos but with artists from across West Africa on its books. I could have chosen pretty much any track on the album but opted for Tony Sarfo from Ghana.

Also from Ghana is Mr George Darko who features on "Ghana Special Volume 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In The Diaspora 1980-93", released earlier this year on Soundway and possibly the pick of all the compilations (against some tough competition). 

They obviously thought it worked because last month they followed it up with "Nigeria Special Volume 3: Electronic Innovation Meets Culture And Tradition 1978-93", which is where you will find this groovy tune from Blackman Akeeb Kareem.

Analog Africa clearly felt the need to stake their claim to the verbosity crown in April when they came up with (deep breath) "Congo Funk! - Sound Madness From The Shores Of The Mighty Congo River (Kinshasa​/​Brazzaville 1969​-​1982)". Never mind the length, feel the quality. It is a veritable feast of funk, with Petelo Vicka Et Son Nzazi just one of the bands cooking up a storm.

Now on to the 'proper' albums. We first head back to Nigeria where we find The Mebusas who turned their hands to all sorts of musical styles on their 1973 album "Blood Brothers Vol. 1". It was reissued a few years ago but there has been no Vol. 2 to date.  

Next door in Cameroon Sergeo & Njohreur could be found strutting their funky stuff in the 1990s. This track is from their 1997 album "Le Mari D'autrui" which I found in a charity shop and does not seem to be readily available (although an incomplete version is on Spotify).

From Cameroon we head due east to Ethiopia where we find the two "Beauties" Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret. Before you condemn me for objectifying two such fine singers, that is the name of their 1976 album which was reissued by Mississippi Records last year. The 1970s. A different time.

From there it is a short hop north to Sudan where we find Abu Obaida Hassan. Abu was a big name domestically in the 1970s and 1980s and in 2018 Ostinato collated some of his best tunes on "Abu Obaida Hassan & His Tambour: The Shaigiya Sound of Sudan".

That is it for the new arrivals, but there are two final tracks before we wrap things up. The first one is necessary to correct an error. Robson Banda was lined up to feature in our visit to Zimbabwe but it was only when I started preparing that post that I discovered while he made his career there he is actually Zambian, so I had to drop him. But his 1990 album "Soweto" is too good not to include.

A similar sin of omission is being put right in the final MAR slot of the series. As I may have mentioned along the way, in some countries it was a real struggle ton find some decent MAR, in others there was a surfeit. 

One such example was when we visited Côte d'Ivoire in August last year. I selected Ismaël Isaac and Tiken Jah Fakoly, both very deserving, but it meant leaving out the man who is probably the biggest MAR star of them all, Alpha Blondy. That can't be right, so I have added one of his big hits from 1984 on the end. 

"Super Star" -Tony Sarfo & His Funki Afrosibi

"Kaakyire Nua" - George Darko

"Oya A (Eje Kajo)" - Blackman Akeeb Kareem

"Sungu Lubuka" - Petelo Vicka Et Son Nzazi

"Mr Bulldog" - The Mebusas

"Matongo" - Sergeo & Njohreur

"Tenafakiwou Tersseh" - Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret

"Nas Fi Nas" - Abu Obaida Hassan

"Masvingo Netara" - Robson Banda & The New Black Eagles

"Cocody Rock" - Alpha Blondy

That's it for the audio. If you missed any episodes or just fancy sifting through the now 360 mp3s that have featured during the series I will be keeping them all available for a few months at least. You can find them all at this link. Or possibly this one.

I haven't compiled the 200 videos so if you want to watch them you'll have to wade your way through them manually, but I have added a few of my personal favourites from the series below to see us out.

Many thanks to all of you who commented and contributed, extra thanks to Charity Chic for suggesting the series title, and the biggest thanks of all to all the wonderful African musicians out there. You make the world a better place.