Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
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Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

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"Refugee All Stars: We are still undefeated"

Reuben Koroma has no difficulty remembering the day the dogs of war first paid him a visit. "I was in Lungi, to the north of Freetown, with my band The Emperors. There was a heavy fight between the UN peacekeepers, Ecomog, and the ruling government who were in alliance with the rebel RUF. I was hiding in my house, under my bed for about 12 hours, and I heard a lot of explosions. Then the Ecomog forces did house-to-house searches and they arrested me and took me to their camp in the international airport. There they told me to squat, tortured me and beat me up. I was not alone. They even wanted to kill us, but then an officer from a Ghanaian peacekeeping force who knew us well said, 'These guys are not rebels, they are civilians, you should let them go.' As soon as I was freed I said to my wife, 'Look, I lost my mother, I lost my father, and now I almost lost my life, so please let us leave.' So we left and walked north. Finally we arrived in Guinea where we registered as refugees."

That was back in 1997. It's now 2006 and the contrast in Koroma's fortunes could not be starker. He's sitting in a hotel room in Nashville, Tennessee, telling me his story. Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, the band he formed at the end of the 1990s in the Kalia refugee camp in southern Guinea, is about to start a second triumphant US tour.

The award-winning documentary film The Refugee All Stars, shot by dauntless American duo Zach Niles and Banker White, with help from the Canadian singer-songwriter Chris Vilen, has catapulted Koroma and his fellow musicians onto the world stage and recruited a club of A-list fans and backers including Keith Richards, Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Geldof, Cameron Crowe, Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Ice Cube. And now the group's debut CD Living Like a Refugee is coming out in the UK, just in time to remind us all of the enduring power of music to heal.

"In a refugee situation, I believe everyone has a psychological problem," Ruben explains. "Music is good therapy. If the mind is fully occupied with problems, if there is no way to purge them, you go mad or crazy, with music, you can neutralise them."

The music that Ruben brewed up with the help of his wife Grace, guitarist Francis "Franco" Langba, vocalist Abdul Rahim Kamara, orphan rapper Black Nature and a host of other refugees back in those forlorn Guinean camps, sounds to the uneducated ear like classic Studio One reggae, a defiantly warm and good-humoured African throwback to the gorgeous harmony vocals and lilting backbeat of The Heptones, Burning Spear or Carlton and the Shores. But stylistic boundaries and lineages have long been blurred by the criss-crossing migrations of people and cultures across the Atlantic, and what sounds like reggae is in fact an age-old West-African rhythm called baskeda, which the Refugee All Stars have simply modernised with electric guitars, bass and drums, coupling it with other native styles like gumbé and Sierra Leone's hitherto most successful musical export, palm wine music.

"Baskeda... that's my father's music," Koroma tells me. "I used to love it when I was a kid so when I grew up I just tried to compose songs in that rhythm. Funnily enough people always call it reggae. I don't know how it happens. Coincidentally, Jamaica must have a relationship with Freetown. To me, it's just like a baskeda feeling."

Koroma was already a professional musician and member of The Emperors, a successful combo on the Freetown circuit lead by his musical mentor Ashade Pearce, when Foday Sankoh's rebel army of brutal enforcers and brainwashed Kalashnikov-toting kids brought his homeland to its knees. In the precarious refuge of the Guinean camps, Ruben turned again to music for strength and solace. "I had a lot to say to the world and to my fellow Sierra Leoneans," he remembers. "We had a lot of grievances and our intention was to bring a change through music."

Some far-sighted employees of the local UNHCR bureau supplied Ruben and his troupe with a basic set of instruments, mics and amplifiers. Their intentions were as pragmatic as they were charitable. "At that time when the UNHCR wanted to hold a meeting, it was very difficult to get the cooperation of the refugees," Ruben explains. "But as soon as we started people would gather round and they could have successful meetings."

The Refugee All Stars were rehearsing when Zach Niles, Banker White and Chris Vilen walked into their makeshift rehearsal room. The trio had been scouring the refugee camps for musicians who might make a good subject for a film illustrating the tragic fall-out of Sierra Leone's civil war. When they met the All Stars they struck gold.

The Refugee All Stars film is a hymn to the strength of the human spirit. It does not spare us from the graphic brutality of the conflict, but it juxtaposes it with life-affirming moments of defiant hope and forgiveness. One of the film's most poignant figures is percussionist Mohammed "Makengo" Kamara, who saw his whole family slaughtered and had one of his hands amputated. When the group are offered a chance to pay a return visit to Freetown, sponsored by the UNHCR, Kamara cannot find the strength to go. The others return to their devastated hometown.

"This was a sweet, sweet country," Koroma muses wistfully. The brutality of my fellow countrymen is one of the things that surprises me too, but this is all caused by illiteracy and greed. In my country, the rich people were not providing for the poor masses, and for the children of the poor. There was no education. So when Foday Sankoh came he was able to captivate the poor people's spirit. Most of these youths were fooled and so they went into the bush and started to commit atrocities."

Ultimately, in the darkness of despair and exile, Koroma and his fellow musicians found unexpected lodes of strength and hope. "Music is with the spirit of man," Koroma asserts. "And the spirit of man is the power of man. So if you can speak to a man through his spirit, then you have already spoken to him the best way." - The Independant


"Refugee All Stars: From Sierra Leone To New Orleans"

The musicians of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars first came together in West African refugee camps during the waning years of Sierra Leone's civil war. Their story was the subject of a documentary film, which helped launch an international career for the band after the release of their debut CD in 2006. The group's second album is called Rise and Shine.

The Refugee All Stars share experiences of violence, loss and the tedium of life in the camps. But when they make music together, something unexpected emerges: buoyant grooves and fierce optimism. Rise and Shine stays true to this band's earthy, informal mix of reggae and West African genres. A couple of these tracks sound like they were recorded around a campfire with just drums and acoustic guitar. Others make a nod to contemporary trends in popular dance music.

The youngest member of the Refugee All Stars, Black Nature, brings a dance hall feeling into the mix. "The older members always call me the engine," he says, "because I helped bring in a generation, you know — like the kind of thing I do, the kind of style I sing, or the dance moves. As long as I'm on stage, the stage becomes my office. No joke. You know, my mission on stage is to let the people know that the band is incredible."

The All Stars began the album in Sierra Leone and finished it in New Orleans, where session brass players added heft and polish to the band's roots-reggae sound. "We fell in love with the place," Black Nature says about New Orleans. "It's a really unique place, full of rich, rich culture."

Refugee All Stars co-founder Reuben Koroma sees similarities between New Orleans and Sierra Leone. "Well, New Orleans, it's like Africa. The foodstuff that people eat there really has, I mean, 100 percent resemblance to the type of food we eat in Africa," he says. "And one other thing that fascinated me most: New Orleans happens to be a city that there is great evidence of live band performance, and I really enjoy that kind of thing."

Koroma says their song "Jah Come Down" makes an even deeper connection between Freetown, Sierra Leone, and New Orleans — the shared history of the Atlantic slave trade. "When slavery was abolished, most of the slaves were languishing in England, and people felt that they should find a place to bring them back. And then Freetown was chosen. And the idea is, for 400 years, black people were transported to the great America for work," Koroma says. "I know that their relatives and their siblings must have missed them a lot, and the separation of people really created a very, very negative impact in Africa. So I just think of reminding people about that past history. And I believe that for the white slave master to abandon slavery, it was really the miraculous work of God. That's why I say 'Jah come down.' It was Jah who really told them, selling your fellow human being is really cruel. And they realized their mistake, and then they stopped it."

Now that Sierra Leone's civil war is over, the band is turning its attention back to the music and concerns of their country. Their song "Oruweibe/Magazine Bobo" uses local goombay percussion to talk about life in the Freetown slum where most of these musicians grew up. "Magazine is the poorest place in Sierra Leone," Koroma says. "You know, most of the poor people are really living there. I mean, no one would have thought that Magazine would produce important people, and coincidentally, most of us hailed from that place, and we are now celebrities. So it's like we are talking about that. Magazine Bobo is a great man, because he has made an impact in the world."

The Refugee All Stars' journey from Magazine to the refugee camps, to New Orleans and the stages of the world has inevitably affected their songwriting. Koroma acknowledges that the perspective has broadened, but he says the band's essential mission remains the same. "It's really a long struggle out of the war, out of miserable conditions," he says. "But it matters really very seriously that we do not really think about ourselves alone. We think about the world, giving our messages into the world, positive messages, so that we can expect a positive change in the world and, most importantly, peace." - NPR


"Banning's Top Releases From Africa in 2010!"

A spirited follow-up to the debut release from this band, formed in refugee camps during Sierra Leone’s long civil war. The All Stars recorded in New Orleans and their reggae-gospel-gumbe sound and optimistic message take on new worldliness, without losing homespun charm. - Afropop Worldwide


"Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars: Rise & Shine"

The Refugee All Stars are survivors. Escaping from the horrors of civil war in Sierra Leone, they fled to a refugee camp across the border in Guinea, but here they were attacked once again and forced to move on. They formed a band to raise their morale, and became internationally known, thanks to an award-winning documentary about their remarkable history. Their first album, six years ago, was an uplifting affair but was followed by a sadly sub-standard London concert that suggested they might enjoy only brief success in the west. But they kept going, and developed a style that matches cheerfully upbeat reggae with lilting African guitar pop, chanting, percussive traditional styles, and multilingual social comment. This new album was mostly recorded in Freetown, Sierra Leone and in New Orleans, where local musicians added brass and harmonica to the Refugees' guitars and harmony singing on the reggae morality tales, Global Threat and Gbrr Mani (Trouble). Even more encouraging are the traditional Bute Vange, recorded at a festival in Japan, and the acoustic reggae of Watching All Your Ways, recorded around a campfire in Canada, which suggest that this much-travelled band are now far more impressive playing live. - The Guardian


Discography

Living Like A Refugee - Anti Records (2006)
Rise & Shine - Cumbancha (2010)
Rise & Shine Remixes - Cumbancha (2011)
Iñez - w/ Chris Velan - Single (2011)
No Woman No Cry - Tribute To A Legend - Putumayo (2010)
Give Peace A Chance - W/ Aerosmith - Imagine Amnesty International (2008)
Seconds - In the Name of Love - Africa Celebrates U2

Photos

Bio

Sitting in a dusty refugee camp in Guinea in 2004, Reuben M. Koroma, the founder of Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, could not have imagined what the near future would hold for him and the members of his band. In just six whirlwind years, the group has gone from being unknown musicians languishing in various refugee camps to being the subject of an acclaimed documentary film, touring the world to support a critically revered album, appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and sharing the stage and studio with Aerosmith and other international stars. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of war and enflamed the passions of fans across the globe with their uplifting songs of hope, faith and joy. The band is a potent example of the redeeming power of music and the ability of the human spirit
to persevere through unimaginable hardship and emerge with optimism intact.

Throughout the 1990s, the West African country of Sierra Leone was wracked with a bloody, horrifying war that forced millions to flee their homes that forced millions to flee their homes. The musicians that would eventually form Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars are all originally from Freetown, and they were forced to leave the capital city at various times after violent rebel attacks. One particularly odious event took place on January 6, 1999, when rebels attacked the city as part of an unthinkably evil campaign they called “Operation Kill Every Living Thing.” This attack on Freetown caused a panicked mass exodus with thousands of civilians fleeing the region. Most of those that left the country made their way into neighboring Guinea, some ending up in refugee camps and others struggling to fend for themselves in the capital city of Conakry.

Koroma and his wife Grace had left Sierra Leone in 1997 and found themselves in the Kalia refugee camp near the border with Sierra Leone. When it became clear they would not be heading back to their homeland anytime soon, they joined up with guitarist Francis John Langba (aka Franco), and bassist Idrissa Bangura (aka Mallam), other musicians in the camp whom they had known before the war, to entertain their fellow refugees. Even the refugee camps were not safe havens, however, as they were attacked by the Guinean military and civilian militias who believed the camps were being used as staging ground for cross border attacks by the Sierra Leonean rebels. Eventually, Reuben, Grace and Franco ended up in the more stable Sembakounya Refugee Camp near the remote town of Dabola, and there they put the call out for musicians to audition to form a band. After a Canadian relief agency donated two beat up electric guitars, a single microphone and a meager sound system, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars were born.

American filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White encountered the band in the Sembakounya Camp, and were so inspired by their story they ended up following them for three years as they moved from camp to camp, bringing much needed joy to fellow refugees with their heartfelt performances. Eventually, the war in Sierra Leone came to an end, and over time the All Stars returned to Freetown, where they met other returning musicians who joined the band’s rotating membership. It was there in the tin-roofed shacks of Freetown’s ghettos that Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars recorded the tracks that ended up, along with unplugged recordings made in the refugee camps, being the basis for their debut album, Living Like a Refugee, which was released on the label Anti in 2006.

The resulting film that documented this moving saga, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, was a critical success, and introduced the world to the personalities and dramatic stories behind the band, not to mention their instantly appealing music. “As harrowing as these personal tales may be,” wrote The New York Times, “the music buoying them is uplifting.” Newsweek raved, “It’s as easy to fall in love with these guys as it was with the Buena Vista Social Club.”

The movie, album and eventual U.S. tours helped expand their following, and soon the band found itself playing in front of enraptured audiences of tens of thousands at New York’s Central Park SummerStage, Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival and the revered Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. They appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, contributed a song to the Blood Diamond film soundtrack, participated in the U2 tribute album In the Name of Love: Africa Celebrates U2, and earned praise and backing from Sir Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, Ice Cube, Angelina Jolie and others inspired by their life-affirming
story and captivating music. In one of the most surreal moments of their climb to fame, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars opened for Aerosmith at the 12,000 capacity Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Despite their success, back home in Sierra Leone it was becoming clear that even though the war was over, there were still difficult challenges