CULTURE | Sierra Leone: The Healing Power of Music
November 2024 | Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine
Story be Black Nature, with Daniel J. Gerstle. Image by DJG. This story was originally published in Humanitarian Bazaar Magazine (aka HELO) in 2011.
Chill out for a moment, get comfortable, and listen to this seductive soundscape, “Watching All Your Ways” by the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars. After traveling out of Freetown during the Sierra Leone Civil War a decade ago, the Refugee All Stars discovered each other and began playing traditional music styles for fellow refugees in Guinea. Documentarians Zach Niles and Banker White covered the group’s story for a documentary film which not only played well at the festivals, but led to the group touring the globe.
Black Nature (Alhadji Jeffrey Camara), a singer and the youngest member of the group, took time off the busy tour for the group’s new album Rise and Shine and his work on a partner project, We Own TV, to talk with HELO about the power of music culture.
Music is about love. Music is about getting out of poverty. Music is about changing the world. Music is about bringing oneness, bringing peace. With music, we can communicate on different sides of the world, can hear what is in your mind and what you want to talk about. Music is life for me, everything. Without music, I don’t know how I would have the opportunity to communicate, to tour, and to meet people around the world. It’s a way to change the world into a better place.
We had a war in Sierra Leone, so many of us fled to the next country, Guinea. That’s where Reuben Koroma, the band leader, and I met. We were living in the same refugee camp and he was a big inspiration in my life. When I started doing music at a very young age in the refugee camp, Reuben was also doing music there. He had been a musician before the war.
At that time, Reuben had a friend called, Franco, who was one of the oldest members of the Refugee All Stars. Franco managed to bring his acoustic guitar with him to the refugee camp. He would sing then Reuben would sing. When I saw them doing this, I came around and just listened. We started to rap, me and Reuben. Also he thought I was a really talented kid at that time. I was doing a lot of freestyling, writing songs with my friends. I used to do a lot of rap, a little bit of singing, percussion. He encouraged me to play together with them. We would improvise drums, so I started playing for them.
Some time later, a few members kept together because Reuben and his wife had come together when they fled. That’s how we formed together and called it the Refugee All Stars. We started playing for hundreds of people in the refugee camp, outside and in community theatres and so on.
Traditional music was my biggest influence when I started doing music. I started doing it at first in grammar school. I was a traditional dancer. Then I’d sing traditional songs and play traditional instruments. Traditional music came to mean a lot to us. It was exclusively Sierra Leonean music, full of rich culture, something we’ve made for decades, we’ve improved it from our forefathers. Except now, with the new generation there are a lot of influences from the outside world, hip-hop, reggae.
In Sierra Leone, we have about twelve ethnic groups. Each member of the group speaks one of those languages. We speak our national language, Krio, we think in Krio, and sing in our local dialects and in English. We also like singing some other West African languages like from Guinea, and Mandingo, a little bit of everything. Some members sing in French.
I grew up hearing about Fela Kuti. I wasn’t a really big fan in terms of listening to his albums and songs, but whenever I heard his song somewhere, that song touches my heart and I know that he’s a real hero. Recently, I started learning more about him when I met with the lady who brought him to America. She told me a lot about Fela and that period. The day before yesterday, we were invited to the show on Broadway, a line-up about his life and music, too. Now I’m a really huge fan of him.
Music has created a lot of impact. One of the biggest impacts that music created is talking about political issues. African countries, most of them are full of corruption. People don’t have the opportunity to speak their minds or to just go on the radio and say, “That man should please change this, bring positive change.”
People don’t have that opportunity. But go to a studio and record a track and put it on the radio and everyone in the country could hear that. Music has definitely given to the development of our country and the peace. Music also created employment ideas for youth because in the country we don’t really have enough jobs for youth or the country as a whole. Youth do music because they want to say something to people, and they can make money.
The international community should introduce to people facing hard life the tools and encourage them to make music. (See also, Black Nature’s partner project, We Own TV.) Music is very cheap now. You can be in your house and make music as long as you have a computer and microphone. Music has a lot to contribute in the minds of people. For us in Sierra Leone, we don’t have the opportunity to just travel across Africa and to other countries in other ways. Through music, they sing about those things they have in their mind and put it out there. People hear the message.
Our new album was launched on March 24th. Now we’re touring around playing shows. We have this song, my favorite, “Gbrr Mani,” which in Temne means, Trouble. That song talks about two partners, two people who decided to get married and got into fights. The song talks about how only trouble can come out of fighting.