Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars Living Like a Refugee (Anti Records;
September 2006)
A few months ago, I was in the squalid refugee (technically,
Internally Displaced Person) camps of Northern Uganda. Amidst the chaos and poverty, I
stumbled upon a pulsating group of people dancing to some of the
most soulful live music I’d ever heard. Inside this circle were a
half-dozen or so musicians, playing instruments made from whatever
resources were available: logs and leather strings for the
guitar-like instruments, USAID tins for the percussion. It was one
of the few signs of happiness and hope in a landscape of death and
despair. It’s a powerful scene that remains with me to this day.
This CD reminds me of that experience.
The Refugee All Stars are, indeed, refugees from Sierra
Leone’s long running civil war, which reached the capital of
Freetown in the late 1990s and forced most of these musicians from
their homes. They eventually met at the Kalia Refugee Camp in
Guinea, but then that camp became another battleground, for the
Guinea goverment saw it as a headquarters for rebel attacks in that
country. It wasn’t until the refugee moved to Sembakounya Refugee
Camp that their paths became musically intertwined. And, thanks to
Canadian relief workers who provided a sound system, the Refugee
All Stars were born. (Following photo by Jane Richey.)
The group began buzzing immediately, attracting support from
Keith Richard, Ice Cube, Paul McCartney, and, of course, Angelina
Jolie. Though they’ve been simmering beneath the pop culture radar
for some time now, this September release is their official debut.
With 17 songs ranging from reggae to West African and showing
influences from Fela Kuti to Bob Marley and every spiritual
African-descended performer in between, Living Like a
Refugee is one of the year’s best and most inspirational
albums. Lyrics talk about life as a refugee, what it’s like to go
hungry, and even include the most fitting African proverb “when two
elephants are fighting, it’s the grass that must suffer.”
Assuredly, these refugees have lived through much suffering. But
as this album confirms, strife breeds creativity and music, that
globally uniting phenomenon, conquers all.
Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars play the Knitting
Factory in Hollywood on November 21.