Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia and is bordered by Guinea to the north. With a land area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi), Sierra Leone has a tropical climate and with a variety of environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. According to the 2015 census, Sierra Leone has a population of 7,092,113, with Freetown serving as both the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are further subdivided into 16 districts.
Sierra Leone's music is a mixture of native, French, British, West Indian and Creole musical genres.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel group that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later transformed into a political party, which still exists today. The three most senior surviving leaders, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao, were convicted in February 2009 of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Koidu Town is the capital and largest city of the diamond-rich Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The population of Koidu Town is 124,662 based on the 2015 Sierra Leone national census. Koidu Town is the fifth largest city in Sierra Leone by population, after Freetown, Kenema, Bo and Makeni. Koidu Town is a major urban, business, commercial and diamond trade center. Koidu Town lies approximately 280 miles east of Freetown, and about 60 miles north of Kenema.
Calabash Music was an online music company based in Somerville, Massachusetts established in 2001 by Brad Powell. In 2008 management of the Calabash Music catalogue was taken over by the French company Mondomix, which ceased operation of the music service in 2012.
Tartit are a band from the Tombouctou Region of Mali. The group consists of five women and four men, all of whom are Tamasheq-speaking Tuareg. They formed in 1992 in a refugee camp in Mauritania. Imharhan, an expanded group that includes current and former Tartit members, incorporates electric instruments and cross-cultural experiments into their music.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is a documentary film about the musical band of the same name composed entirely of refugees from Freetown displaced to Guinea during the 1991-2002 civil war in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars is a band from Sierra Leone which was formed by a group of refugees displaced to Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War. Since their return to Freetown in 2004, the band has toured extensively to raise awareness for humanitarian causes. Their story is documented in the 2005 documentary film Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars.
Emmerson Amidu Bockarie, better known as Emmerson, is a Sierra Leonean Afropop singer and songwriter. His songs advocate social change, and he has gained recognition in his native Sierra Leone for his political themes that center on the corruption in the government. Emmerson sings in Krio and English.
Chopteeth is a Washington, D.C.- based afrofunk big-band. Although rooted in Fela Kuti's Nigerian afrobeat, Chopteeth's music is an amalgam of Ghanaian highlife, Senegalese rumba, Jamaican ska, Mande griot music, 1970's West African funk, Ewe dance drum rhythms, Kenyan Taita afropop, soul-funk, and jazz. Chopteeth's writing and arrangements feature unique driving syncopations, and occasional odd meters. Chopteeth vocalists sing in eight different languages including English, Nigerian Pidgin, Swahili, Wolof, Mande, Twi, Taita, and French.
Sila and the Afrofunk Experience is an Afrofunk band formed in 2003.
Chris Velan is a Montreal-based singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Living Like a Refugee is the debut album from Sierra Leonian band Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, released in the Europe on 25 September 2006 and in the United States on 26 September 2006.
Human rights in Sierra Leone are in a rather deplorable state, but have improved gradually since the end of its civil war in 2002. Among the major human-rights problems in Sierra Leone today, according to a 2011 U.S. State Department report, are "security force abuse and use of excessive force with detainees, including juveniles; harsh conditions in prisons and jails; official impunity; arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged detention, excessive bail, and insufficient legal representation; interference with freedom of speech and press; forcible dispersion of demonstrators; widespread official corruption; societal discrimination and violence against women, discrimination based on sexual orientation; female genital mutilation (FGM); child abuse; trafficking in persons, including children; and forced child labor".
Cumbancha is a record label, booking agency and music publisher based in Charlotte, Vermont. The company was founded by ethnomusicologist and music producer Jacob Edgar in 2006. In 2007, Cumbancha Music Publishing was established to expand opportunities for artists, helping them license songs to various movies, television programs, and advertisements, including Boyhood, Grey's Anatomy, and High Maintenance. Cumbancha Booking was founded in 2010 to book tours for artists on and off the label, bringing them to venues such as Hollywood Bowl, Montreal Jazz Festival, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Lincoln Center, Central Park SummerStage, and Austin City Limits. Artists on the label include The Idan Raichel Project, Habib Koité and Bamada, Rupa & the April Fishes, Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, The Touré-Raichel Collective, and Lakou Mizik, among many others. The name "Cumbancha" derives from the Cuban word of West African derivation meaning an impromptu musical gathering or party.
Rise & Shine (2010) is the second album by Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, following their debut album Living Like a Refugee (2006). The album was produced by Steve Berlin, renowned for his work with Los Lobos, Angélique Kidjo, Michelle Shocked, Rickie Lee Jones and Ozomatli, and recorded in their hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone and New Orleans, Louisiana. Reflecting the influences of both recording locations, the album's sound is "a fusion of traditional West African music and roots reggae, inflected with New Orleans styles."
Radio Salone (2012) is the third album from Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars. It was produced by artist and producer Victor Axelrod aka "Ticklah," who has worked with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Amy Winehouse and the Easy Star All Stars, and recorded at Dunham Studios in Brooklyn, NY.
Elikeh is an Afropop band based in Washington DC, founded by the Togolese, Serge Massama Dogo. Elikeh uses elements of Togolese rhythms as a foundation for exploration into American-influenced blues, funk and rock to produce captivating Afro-pop tunes that are as listenable as they are danceable. Although based in indigenous traditions, Elikeh's music has no borders, exploring global themes and personal odysseys. The sound is very close to Osibisa and Fela Kuti.
Wills Glasspiegel is an American filmmaker, artist, scholar and community organizer from Chicago. Glasspiegel has spent several years working alongside electronic musicians and dancers from Sierra Leone, South Africa and Chicago. In 2017, he co-founded the arts and racial justice nonprofit, Open the Circle. He has produced public radio segments for All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and was recognized as a co-recipient of a Peabody Award in 2014 for his contributions to the public radio program Afropop Worldwide. Wills' collaborations have been featured in a variety of publications including CNN, FADER Magazine, Dazed Magazine, Pitchfork, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and Chicago Tribune. He worked from 2016-2023 as an artist and filmmaker with The Era Footwork Crew, including as creative director for The Era's touring performance,IN THE WURKZ, a show that won the National Dance Project award in 2019 from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Glasspiegel's work has been recognized with prizes from the MacArthur Foundation, the Field Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Chicago. His films and installations have screened at Stony Island Arts Bank, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MANA Contemporary, Shibuya crossing in Japan, and several times with Art on the Mart in Chicago.
Ayra Starr is the eponymous debut extended play by Nigerian singer-songwriter Ayra Starr. It was released on 22 January 2021 through Mavin Records.
