August 2012 Issue
War is not an easy thing to navigate, particularly when your only weapon for peace is the sound of your own voice.
For Ahmed Janka Nabay, the daily bombings and fear for his country’s demise inspired him to sing to his brothers and sisters for amity, becoming an African superstar during the political corruption of Sierra Leone, known for blood diamonds and now, for Nabay’s electronic, high-energy and empowering messages within the ancient art of bubu music.
Bubu, a traditional style of songs that have been played by the people of Sierra Leone for over 500 years, was said to have come from a young “bubu boy” who learned the sound from witches and brought it to the public, sacrificing his own life in the process.
Likewise, Janka Nabay has made his own sacrifices in expanding its roots beyond African borders, though he held fast to integrity of his music after arriving in the states near the end of Sierra Leone’s 10-year civil war.
“All of them started telling me to change my style of music to rap music, and I am disgusted about that,” Nabay said in a thick, Temne accent. “I don’t like to hear that because that is my dream to promote bubu music, and somebody told me that it won’t work. So I moved.”
After earning a living working in fried chicken joints and food trucks up and down the East Coast, Nabay found himself in New York, where he stumbled upon Brooklyn indie experimenters Doug Shaw (Gang Gang Dance, Highlife, White Magic), Jason McMahon and Jonathan Leland (Skeletons), Michael Gallope (Starring) and vocalist Boshra Al-Saadi. Two years of playing city basements, rooftops and block parties followed to result in the new release of Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang’s first full-length album En Yay Sah.
“The theme of the album is all about writing a letter, like you write about bunch of things that’s in your mind about my people living in America,” Nabay said. “And right now Americans want bubu music, so I play this music for Americans.”
Drum machine kicks, twitching synths, blown bamboo shoots and carburetor pipes incorporate into the sound, modernizing the ancient bubu. In translation, the Krio words “En Yay Sah” mean “I’m scared.” The record is a compilation of Nabay’s experiences since he stepped onto U.S. soil, fighting the trials and tribulations faced by the many who struggle to make it here. All of his songs are sung in Krio, though many of the words have similarities to the English language.
Raised in a Muslim household, Nabay found his voice at a young age while competing with his 18 brothers and sisters for daily rice and lunch money, given to the winner by the youngest of his father’s four wives.
“So through that singing my sisters and brothers would always tell teachers, ‘my brother can sing!’ And the teacher started calling me on rehearsals, and I sing and I’m one of the best in the school,” he said. “So I started learning reggae music. Started learning Bob Marley.”
As a young teen, Nabay traveled to Sierra Leone’s largest city, Freetown, to audition for SuperSound, an American Idol–like talent contest. Like many others, he prepared a reggae song.
Exasperated, the judges asked if anyone had anything uniquely Sierra Leone to showcase, and so Nabay did. At 14 he joined a well-known Nigerian artist on stage for his first big appearance playing the Sierra Leone beat and never looked back.
Like Bob Marley, Nabay focused on the social issues rampaging in his country as the war continued. Bombs terrorized the city where he walked, detonating a mere 1,500 yards away and leaving emotional and physical scars in their wake. Still, the message of peace rang through his music.
“It was bad,” he said. “All you could think about was ‘am I going to die today?’”
Nabay began enacting social change through the power of the bubu sound, his cassette tapes selling in the tens of thousands. But the rebels caught on, using his music to deliver their battle-cry and luring people from their hiding spots as they invaded villages.
Through his hardships he found – and continues to find – inspiration for his words.
“The war influenced me too much,” Nabay said softly. “I was singing about the war – about stopping the war. Let’s make up, let’s become friends, let’s disarm, we need the government, we need to stop recruiting young children, we need food, we need to check each other, we all brothers. All these words.”
Now having played Bonnaroo Music Festival and headed for a west-coast tour, he has found his niche along with his gang of Brooklynites.
“Bubu has always been about collective ideas,” Nabay explains, when discussing his collaboration. “The sounds in my music have been played for hundreds of years, always mixing the new and the old. These guys are taking all the things they have in their heads and what I show them, and they are making new things out of it.”
CD/LP/digital release of En Yay Sah will be available August 7th. For more information, visit www.luakabop.com/janka-nabay/.
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