Chapter 07
Twenty-Four Performances across Sierra Leone
11 min
1. Momo Seri, Abdulai Forna and Saidu Turay — “Temne Song”
Catalogue number CVO:208 identifies this 1966 recording from Mano in Yoni Chiefdom. Momo Seri's lead and movement sit beside Abdulai Forna's hand-played sangbai, Saidu Turay's struck tin and collective clapping. Follow the tin first, then hear how the drum gives the sharper sound a body. The full credit turns a broad title into a precise Temne performance.
2. Jeno Ballay, Karnegie Conteh, Tamba Kamara and Sorie Kamara — “Limba Song”
CVO:355 was recorded at Kamboma in 1970. Jeno Ballay leads; kututen, kongoma and kukotor separate into pitched metal tongues, a larger box resonance and struck metal. The catalogue also documents circular dancing with children and women carrying babies. Hear how the low kongoma pattern supports the lighter rattle and how the vocal turns an instrumental cycle into a shared family event.
3. Sorie Conteh, Laminah Bangura and Tebu Conteh — “Loko Song”
CVO:117 identifies this 1965 Rokulan recording. Conteh and Bangura sing a conversation and play bundoma while Tebu Conteh adds gbahima. Spoken phrases enter the singing, and occasional chorus voices widen the exchange. The plucked tongues give pitch and buzz together. Dialogue, instrument and social theatre occupy the same compact form.
4. Njeva, Maraima, Ms. Njuveh, Madiye, Natoma and singers from Sewafe village — “Dear, Come, Let's Go to the Coffee Bush”
This 1978 performance appears on Music of Sierra Leone: Kono Mende Farmers' Songs. Keep the full women's credit visible. Lead and group voices turn agricultural movement into invitation and coordinated time. Listen for the way a phrase returns with changing pressure. The track belongs to a particular gathering around Punduru and Sewafe, with its own singers and social setting.
5. Salia Koroma and His Accordion — “Ganene Bimbe”
Koroma makes provincial professional music impossible to confuse with a field sample. His accordion supplies chord, pulse and melodic reply beneath a Mende vocal about a valued garment that will eventually tear or be discarded. Hear the bellows as phrasing: each push and pull organizes both harmony and breath. The portable instrument lets one performer carry much of a dance band's work across chiefdoms and recording markets.
Afropop producers Wills Glasspiegel and Drew Alt documented this performance in Lokomasama Chiefdom, Port Loko District. The public field record preserves place, occasion and interlocking pipe sound but not individual player credits, so no band name has been invented. Separate breaths become one line; Janka Nabay later translates that distributed logic into an electric diaspora band.
7. Yele Foday Samura, Fatmatta Kamara, Yele Sulimani Samura, Yele Sulima Samura and Yele Mamudu Samuru — “Yalunka Warriors Song”
Recorded at Falaba in 1966, this ensemble places four balangi beside a kariyana metal time line. Yele Foday Samura leads and plays the second balangi; the other singers and players overlap, answer and confirm. Follow one wooden-key pattern before hearing all four as a resonant field. The full credit joins instrument, people and place.
8. Ebenezer Calender and His Maringar Band — “Double Decker Buses”
Calender turns city transport into maringa. Guitar, gumbe-related pulse, call and response and Krio observation make infrastructure social. Hear how the refrain invites public repetition while the band keeps a light dance motion beneath the words. Then play “Cost of Living Nar Freetown” to hear the same composer use topical song for household economics. Everyday Freetown is the subject and the audience.
9. S.E. Rogie — “My Lovely Elizabeth”
Rogie's signature song is one of the clearest examples of Sierra Leonean palm-wine guitar. Follow the thumbed bass and higher picked notes as separate layers, then notice how his baritone settles between them. The arrangement feels easy because the placement is precise. Rogie carries coastal guitar history into a personal love song without losing the dance pulse or turning intimacy into sentimentality.
10. Geraldo Pino and the Heartbeats — “Right in the Centre”
This track appears on Heavy Heavy Heavy. The Heartbeats began in Freetown; Pino's decisive soul-funk career then developed in Ghanaian circuits. Hear bass and drums lock first, guitar and horns strike compact figures, and Pino use repetition as stage command. Its power comes from both the band and its Sierra Leonean-Ghanaian history.
11. Muyei Power — “Bi Loko”
“Bi Loko” is on Sierra Leone in 1970s USA, a later collection of the band's 1970s singles. Percussion moves at high pressure while horns and electric guitar divide the upper space. The title and repertory point toward Loko grounding; the arrangement also hears funk, rock, Afrobeat and regional dance bands. It is local modern music made by musicians already listening across borders.
12. Ebenezer Church Choir Freetown — “Welcome Happy Morning”
This shellac-era choir belongs to the same Freetown record economy as maringa and dance bands. Hear collective attack, vowel agreement and the balance among vocal parts, then compare them with the produced gospel of Giileh Scholz and Hannah Williams. The recording shows Christian hymn practice becoming a local institution through Sierra Leonean singers, not a detached import.
13. Steady Bongo — “Ready Before You Married”
This early-1990s hit catches a popular industry at the edge of war without predicting what followed. Steady Bongo's lively vocal presence and the song's social theme made it suitable for radio, cassettes and public celebration. Conflicting discographies assign slightly different years, so follow the work itself. Hear a singer-producer building ordinary national popularity before the conflict became the country's dominant foreign image.
14. M.B. Attilla — “Peace for My Native Land”
Released on Cry of the Children in 1996, this is a named wartime appeal. Attend to its repeated address, vocal grain and complete popular-song structure. The performance does not need added battlefield sound to carry its moment. Pair it with a nonpolitical song from the same decade when available. That comparison protects Sierra Leonean listeners and musicians from being represented only through crisis.
15. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars — “Living Like a Refugee”
The band's founding network included Reuben Koroma, Grace Koroma and Franco Langba, with later members joining in camps in Guinea. Early material was recorded in the refugee setting before the debut album was completed. On the title song, guitar, percussion, lead and response turn displacement into authored band music. Keep the full group credit and hear the musicians as writers, singers and players with a shared band history.
16. Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang — “Build Music”
Nabay's lead voice cuts across electric bass, guitar, keyboards and drums while fast interlocking parts translate bubu's processional logic into a diaspora band. The title is a creative command. Listen to the short entries and how no single instrument states the whole rhythmic idea. Nabay's wartime history matters, but this 2017 work also carries humor, labor, migration and deliberate musical construction.
17. Kondi Band — “Yeanoh (Powe Handa Blingabe)”
Sorie Kondi's metal tongues establish the central pattern before Chief Boima's electronic production enlarges the floor beneath it. Voice rides the repeated figure with the directness of advice delivered in public. The track opens the 2017 album Salone. Hear the kondi as composer and engine, not as an acoustic decoration added to a producer's beat.
18. Daddy Saj — “Corruption E Do So”
The Krio title means that corruption has become enough. Daddy Saj lists failures with clipped timing while a danceable groove makes the critique easy to repeat. The song's public force came from the fit between language and beat. Listen for where the vocal lands ahead of or behind the pulse. Political rap here grows through Sierra Leonean speech, radio and street circulation.
19. Star Zee — “Doli”
Star Zee's 2025 song carries Mende-language rap and dance phrasing into a new reading of Afro National's Satta, associated with singer Patricia. Listen for what is retained, what the contemporary production sharpens and how Star Zee's voice claims the centre. This is later rap in conversation with band history, not a heritage quotation placed behind a modern performer.
20. Giileh Scholz featuring Hannah Williams — “Yes to Your Will”
Released in 2020, this gospel collaboration connects two generations of Sierra Leonean women. Williams brings an elder minister's weight; Scholz brings a contemporary praise voice; Wayne Michael Wilson's production gives them rhythmic lift. Affirmation grows through repetition and vocal exchange, while the studio sound points back toward congregations, choirs and women's long work in worship.
21. Fantacee Wiz — “Sawa”
“Sawa” is a 2025 single by a singer whose work joins folk-rooted composition, Krio and local-language expression, gender advocacy and modern production. Listen to the voice before identifying the supporting style: diction and attack hold the center. Then explore the 2025 album The Juju In HerStory, where twenty tracks widen her subjects from personal authority to policing and social systems.
22. Rozzy Sokota — “HOW ARE YOU”
Released on 18 June 2025, “HOW ARE YOU” gives current Sierra Leonean pop a woman-led centre. The direct title becomes an intimate hook inside polished digital rhythm. Compare the vocal space with “Tinini” or “Coconut Head.” Sokota's identity does not depend on placing a balangi or gumbe in every mix; language, audience, melody and career network also locate the work.
23. Team Kenema Kenema — “Kema Ena”
Mykus, Nuel Jr, Zarkalooth and Ibro LG recorded this Mende-language song at Sus Beats Entertainment in Kenema in 2025. Singing and rap turn complaint, hard work and resilience into a city address from the east. Kenema's professional present stands beside older provincial field recordings rather than leaving modernity to Freetown.
24. Drizilik and The Therapist — “Lemonade”
“Lemonade” appears on Drizilik's 2025 Wait and See EP. The two artists trade Krio and West African Pidgin across an amapiano-informed bass movement, moving between melody and rap-like phrasing. It is a current regional conversation with a clear Sierra Leonean centre. “Above All” turns from collaborative club energy toward a more reflective voice. These releases mark the scene as it stood in December 2025.
A Practical Listening Sequence
Begin with selections 1–7, which separate Temne, Limba, Loko, Mende, bubu and Yalunka-balangi practices while revealing shared techniques such as response, repetition and movement. Selection 6 retains a documented community credit because the field account did not publish individual names; every other credit remains as specific as the record permits.
Selections 8–12 follow Krio address and guitar placement from Calender to Rogie, then compare Pino and Muyei Power before the choir changes the scale of breath. Freetown remains a meeting place rather than the whole country, and the shift from dance band to choir reveals how one recording economy held several kinds of public music.
For a concentrated dance-band comparison, set selections 10 and 11 beside each other. Start with the rhythm section, then add horns and guitar. Geraldo Pino moves from Freetown into Ghanaian musical life, while Muyei Power balances local grounding and regional circulation. The city bands remain distinct.
Selections 13–17 form a chronology across rupture and migration: Steady Bongo before the war, M.B. Attilla during conflict, Refugee All Stars in displacement, Janka Nabay's diaspora rebuilding and Sorie Kondi's instrument-led collaboration. Loss connects them, but voice, humour, advice, worship and dance keep their differences alive.
Selections 18–24 move through foundational Krio political rap in Daddy Saj, Mende-language revision in Star Zee, gospel affirmation in Scholz and Williams, women's authorship in Fantacee Wiz and Rozzy Sokota, Kenema's studio present and cross-regional production in Drizilik and The Therapist. The direct bubu performance and historical choir make these transformations easier to hear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about Twenty-Four Performances across Sierra Leone
1. What makes Sierra Leonean music distinct?
Its distinction comes from relationships among many language communities, Freetown's Krio and Black Atlantic history, local instruments, public song, radio and coastal travel. Gumbe-informed maringa, bubu's interlocking pipes, kondi patterns, Mende accordion song, Krio topical writing and modern rap all offer different centers. No single rhythm summarizes the country. Exact performers and places reveal the distinctiveness more clearly than a broad genre label.
2. What is bubu music?
Bubu is a Temne-linked processional music built from graduated pipes, percussion, voice and movement. Players divide pitches among themselves, so the musical line emerges through interlocking breath. Public histories connect bubu with Ramadan procession, while local occasion and form vary. Ahmed Janka Nabay modernized it for cassettes and later electric diaspora performance, keeping rapid collective logic active inside a new instrumental setting.
3. What is a kondi?
A kondi is a Sierra Leonean lamellaphone whose metal tongues are plucked with the thumbs over a resonating body. Short pitched attacks combine into repeated melodic-rhythmic patterns. Construction and naming differ across communities. Sorie Kondi amplified the instrument for street and studio work, then Kondi Band placed his Loko-language songs and playing beside Chief Boima's electronic production without hiding the kondi's central role.
4. Are balangi and balafon the same instrument?
They belong to the same broad family of tuned wooden-key xylophones with resonators, but the names carry different language and regional histories. Balangi is the relevant Sierra Leonean term in many records; balafon is widely used in Manding and international contexts. Use the name supplied by the performer or catalogue, then listen for key tuning, paired-hand pattern and the relationship between melody and pulse.
5. What are gumbe, goombay and maringa?
Gumbe or goombay names a frame drum and rhythmic field with an Atlantic history linking West Africa and Caribbean return. In Freetown it became important in Krio social life. Maringa is a Sierra Leonean popular form that joined gumbe-related rhythm to guitar, call and response, calypso and topical song. The terms overlap historically but are not synonyms, and Guinea-Bissauian or Liberian usage has its own development.
6. How does Sierra Leonean palm-wine differ from Ghanaian or Liberian music?
Palm-wine guitar circulated along the coast through sailors, workers, bars and records. Sierra Leonean musicians placed that shared guitar language inside Krio maringa and local-language song. Ghana developed its own palm-wine and highlife histories; Liberia has strong Kru routes and other local forms. S.E. Rogie's finger-picking and baritone offer a precise Sierra Leonean example. Shared circulation explains resemblance without erasing national and personal style.
7. Why is Geraldo Pino connected to both Sierra Leone and Ghana?
Pino was born in Freetown and formed the Heartbeats there, so Sierra Leone shaped his musical foundation. He later worked in Ghana, where musicians, venues and audiences supported the most influential phase of his soul-funk career. Both locations belong in the credit. Calling the work only Ghanaian loses Freetown; calling the Ghana-based ensemble only Sierra Leonean loses the people and setting that made the recordings.
8. How should society music be approached?
Begin with a publicly released, fully credited recording such as Tity Kamara and Her Bondo Drumma's “Orbutie Or Geerana.” Hear the voice, response and instrumental relationship that the public record offers. Do not assume online access opens initiation teaching, names, choreography or meanings held under community authority. Musical detail can coexist with a firm boundary around restricted knowledge.
9. Did the civil war define Sierra Leone's modern music?
The 1991-2002 war profoundly disrupted musicians, radio, archives, venues and everyday life. It shaped M.B. Attilla, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, Janka Nabay, Sorie Kondi and many others in different ways. It did not define every song or begin the modern scene. Maringa, palm-wine, dance bands, gospel, radio and cassettes already had long histories, and artists continued making love, dance, worship and social music through and after conflict.
10. Where should a new listener begin?
Start with one community recording, one Freetown guitar work, one dance band and one current track: Momo Seri with Abdulai Forna and Saidu Turay's “Temne Song,” S.E. Rogie's “My Lovely Elizabeth,” Muyei Power's “Bi Loko” and Fantacee Wiz's “Sawa.” Then follow the instrument, language or town that catches your ear through the remaining selections.
