Atchegbe is a Yoruba word which means doing something without consequences, as in “I’m going to rip off this guy, it’s atchegbe” – it’ll have no consequence. It’s used anytime someone makes a dubious profit. The song, which is not sang in Yoruba but in Fon, takes a shot at corruption, a rampant problem in Benin and a major political concern.
Alassane Sy had an office career until recently, when he decided to go back to his true passion: music. On our first release, Akwaaba wo Africa, we’re featuring one of Alassane’s most bautiful songs, Ngatamaré, which means rain in wolof, Senegal’s dominant language. More generally ngatamaré is synonymous with abundance, and in the song the word refers to Maimouna Sow, a woman who fills her home and friends with her abundance of care and respect.
About 2 minutes into the video, you’ll recognize the melody from Ahmed’s song Baro, featured on Akwaaba wo Africa.
Ahmed grew up in the griot tradition of poetry and music. A talented multi-instrumentist, he has played the flute, balafon (African xylophone), kora and hand drums for numerous Malian greats, including Toumani Diabaté and Vieux Farka Touré. Today he is still touring with them but also focusing on his own projects, including Riff Mandingue which will come out on Akwaaba.
It gets real hot in Bamako, so a lot of the social life happens at night. Friends like to meet after dinner for baro, to chat, often over shots of attaya. Attaya is a tea patiently prepared from green tea, and served in series of three small shot glasses, bitter, strong then sweet. It’s prepared in a pot right on top of a small pyramide of coals. Malians often offered me a glass of attaya, the inside joke being that a toubab is served the third brew, the sweetest and least bitter – the same usually served to children!
I was able to make my way to the full three rounds, complete with discussions flowing from French to Bambara and back, tales of musicians on the road, of cousins in Paris, and one name that came back often was… Obama!
ABK and Oumar took me back to Hush Hush Studios, where I met the owner, Daniel, and LIB Queen, one of Liberia’s top acts. She’s played for a UN concert, for Liberia’s first female president, and a number of other shows in Liberia as well as in Ghana where she now lives. She sings to hiplife, dancehall and reggae beat produced by some of Ghana’s finest, right here at Hush Hush.
I had a chat with Lloyd today, half of Sierra Leonian duo Eden Roots lIberation. We chat about music and how he became a musician. Here are some of his words:
“From the very begining, I loved music, in particular reggae music. I was also living with musicians. When I was looking at them playing, I wanted to be able to do the same. In the same time I was learning to play bass, I began creating my own songs and singing them. It was something obvious for me. I was here to be a musician, a composer and a singer.”
Growing up in Sierra Leone, Lloyd was subject to many new world influences, in particular Caribbean music:
“My most important inspiration comes from Joseph Hill from the Jamaican group Culture, who died recently. They came to Sierra Leone and I saw their concert in Freetown, it was a big moment. I was also inspired by Don Carlos, who was a member of the 12 tribes and who taught me to play music.”
Eden Roots Liberation now has an album under their belt, they’ve been playing consistently throughout West Africa and are eager to spread their message of awareness – as in the song “Open your eyes”, peace and love, especially for the younger generations. Lloyd hopes to play and push his message as far as the US, especially “because the reggae doesn’t seem to be very popular [there]”.
Lloyd from Eden Roots Liberation introduced me to his friend Jahman, who was born in Cameroun but now resides in Bamako, Mali. He’s a reggae singer, with one album out in Mali. “Waiting for the News”. All songs – half of them dub versions – are written by Jahman, arranged and produced by Manjul. They recorded the entire album at Manjul’s Humble Ark studio in Bamako. Jahman also has a track on Humble Ark’s “United Voices of Africa” compilation.