By Alie Sonta Kamara
We know in truth that culture refers to the way of life. This includes custom and tradition. What we eat, how we dress, how we talk, what life means to us, and even how we sing are all tenets of culture.
It is part of patriotism to celebrate identity. When the Americans speak, one gets to know their identity by how they string words together, by how they stress the letter ‘r’, and by their preference for informal discourse markers. This applies to many other foreign nationals with the Nigerians inclusive.
If music is one of the ways to portray identity or more specifically cultural background, are our artistes doing that?
Let us fast forward to the beginning of the 2000s. Sierra Leone music rose to an enviable rank so much so that it created a niche and a recognizable riddim we could all identify with.
Sierra Leoneans danced to the songs of the time, and shows were packed full in pomp and pageantry. Many artistes harvested the green crops and life took its turn for the better.
By 2009 to 2010, the beating of the Bintumani drums was overtaken by the alien piano. And in no time, the complex notes sealed the eager ears of the gullible public. With urgent alacrity, we abandoned our own music and turned to the foreigners’. This period closed the faith of Sierra Leone music.
Some say our music has lost its grip because we are not going together with the rest of the world.
Some say our studio engineers and producers are in urgent need of empowerment to begin with.
Some even say we need good music studios with innovation.
Thoughts like these went far afield, provoking the artistes and all those in the business of music to take prompt action, and taking action they actually did.
The first move witnessed artistes copying wholesale from the Nigerians, thinking that such an effort resonated with taking Sierra Leone music to the next level. This is the biggest mistake of all. They sang the way the Nigerians sing; they produced beat the way the Nigerians do. And for them, this is improvement. There are times one could hardly tell the difference between the two. Do you know what the mistake is? We are celebrating the culture of another in grand style unpatriotically. This has graduated to a certain degree that Sierra Leoneans do not recognize their own zouk system of music any longer since it is mixed with afro hip-hop condiments and a whole lot of strange varieties. Is snubbing our own system of music and upholding an alien one mean improvement?
Let us see it this way. The Guineans and the Senegalese will never imagine abandoning their culture. Whosoever is a follower of international music will attest to the fact that the Guineans in particular have never shunned their ‘balanjis’ and related traditional percussion in their songs. Has that kept them in one place? Are their songs not being played all over the world? This is patriotism.
The Nigerians are hitting the world with their music, their culture being at a vantage point. Even when they feature black Americans, they encourage them in compelling terms to borrow words from the Nigerian pidgin. And sometimes the black Americans even find the effort enticing because the Nigerian culture is popular. This demonstrates how far they have gone.
To our producers. Sometimes I pity them for the unnecessary tension people mount on them. They are being forced to abandon the Sierra Leone zouk style for the afro hip-hop, a system not our own.
Yes, it is true that the engineers need training to standardize how we mix and master songs but not to alter our style.
Thanks to K Man and to a few others for holding the fort in this challenging period. So until we revisit our style and form of music and improve on it (not changing it of course) we will continue to celebrate another man’s culture in totality.
