Ernie's African Odyssey Part 44 - Sierra Leone

Our journey through Africa is taking a slight detour today to visit a country we inadvertently drove straight past - Sierra Leone. 

We should have gone there directly from the Seychelles but I foolishly deleted my list of Sierra Leonean artists from the document I have been using to plan posts and by the time I noticed we were already in South Africa. Many apologies to all concerned. Better late than never, we have now arrived and I hope you will agree it was worth the wait.

We'll start in the 1970s, an era when big bands and orchestras bossed the scene all over West Africa. We have featured some of them on our earlier visits to the likes of Benin and Senegal so it seems only right that we should do the same in Sierra Leone. 

The band in question is the mighty Afro National. If you buy only one greatest hits album by a Sierra Leonean band from the 1970s this week make it their "African Experimentals (1972​-​1979)". It includes today's track, first released in 1972 on their self-titled debut album.

One of Afro National's friendly local rivals back in the day was Muyei Power aka Orchestre Muyei. A popular live act across the region, they made very few recordings before splitting up in 1979. But somehow in 2014 Soundway Records managed to track down some sessions that the band had done while touring in California in 1976 and released them as "Sierra Leone in 1970s USA". 

Next we turn to the man considered by many to be the king of palm wine music, the late great S.E. Rogie. Palm wine evolved in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the first half of the last century when local musicians fused traditional melodies with calypso rhythms learnt from visiting sailors, becoming popular in the 1950s and in turn being an influence on the development of highlife music.

Mr Rogie started recording locally in the 1960s and later in life lived first in San Francisco and then London. It was during this period that he really started getting recognised beyond Sieera Leone and neighbouring countries. This track comes from his 1991 album "The New Sounds of S. E. Rogie", recorded three years before his death. That particular album is not on Bandcamp but you can find his final album and two volumes of his 1960s recordings there.

From palm wine we move to bubu, the traditional music of the Temne people from northern Sierra Leone. Janka Nabay took it on himself to modernise the sound, and after emigrating to the US in the early 2000s to escape the civil war released a number of albums on Luaka Bop and other labels before sadly passing away in 2018. Today's selection comes from 2012's "En Yay Sah".

You often hear tales of musicians overcoming hardships before achieving success, but few have had to ensure quite as many as Sorie Kondi, as his biography explains. A blind street musician, a chance encounter with an American recording engineer gave him the chance to have his music heard by a wider audience, a chance he grabbed with both hands. This track is from his 2013 album "Thogolobea". You can also find some more recent recordings (as The Kondi Band) on Bandcamp. 

Remember what I was saying about Sorie Kondi facing more hardship than most? Well since typing that I have learnt that Mash P, the man occupying the MAR slot in this post, was not just a street youth but a child soldier in the civil war. This possibly tops Mr Kondi. Either way, Mash P's experiences certainly entitle him to ask "Mr President, Wat Ar Gwan?" (featured below and the title track of his 2016 album). 

I cannot confirm whether the P stands for potatoes.

"Push Am Forward" - Afro National

"Wali Bena" - Muyei Power

"Salonbla Amoo Goyia Gbateh" - S.E. Rogie

"Kill Me With Bongo" - Janka Nabay & The Bubu Gang

"Y'Alimamy" - Sorie Kondi

"Mr President, Wat Ar Gwan?" - Mash P

The MAR continues with the first of our videos before we hand the reins over to some of the many fine female Sierra Leonean performers to see us home.