Janka Nabay est le pĂšre auto-proclamĂ© de la musique Bubu contemporaine de Sierra Leone, qui prend ses racines dans les fĂȘtes musulmanes auxquelles il assistait petit, mais qui existe depuis plusieurs centaines d’annĂ©es. Il est le premier Ă avoir modernisĂ© cette musique en y intĂ©grant des claviers et des flutes de bambou ou rĂ©alisĂ©es Ă partir de piĂšces de carburateurs, et ainsi Ă l’avoir popularisĂ©e.
C’est clairement de la musique pour la danse, voire la transe.
Pendant la guerre civile qui a ravagĂ© ce pays, mĂȘme s’il n’avait pas pris fait et cause pour un camp contre l’autre et continuait Ă enregistrer Ă Freetown, ses compositions furent utilisĂ©es par les forces rebelles qui les diffusaient largement afin de faire sortir les gens de leurs cachettes et ainsi les capturerâŠ
Aussi, ses textes actuels cherchent à gommer ce mauvais souvenir et sont trÚs axés sur son militantisme pacifique, humanitaire et égalitaire.
Nabayâs âbubuâ music may sound utterly hip and futuristic to American ears, but its history spans centuries. The original âbubuâ is cloaked in mythology: according to Nabay a young âbubu boyâ took it from witches 500 years ago and brought it to the public at large, sacrificing his own life in the process. When Islam reached Sierra Leone, bubu became a part of indigenous processionals during Ramadan; this is the music Nabay learned and perfected as a child. As Janka says: âBubu is an old, old music, but people donât know about it. You can add new things into the beat if you know it really well, and make your own sound out of it.â
Like many other musicians in Sierra Leone, Nabay got his start performing what he liked: reggae. But while auditioning for a national talent contest, Nabayâs performance of bubu music wowed a panel of frustrated judges who were eager to hear something uniquely Sierra Leonean.
So impressed, they decided to sponsor Nabayâs first recording session. From the Forensic Recording Studios of Freetown (Sierra Leoneâs capital), he drew inspiration from âMichael Jackson, Bob Marley, and Godâ and modernized bubu into a hypnotic dance music, adding new instruments and timbres while remaining faithful to the transfixing rhythms that defined the original. âLike any other beat, it has flows, ups and downs,â he notes, pointing to the powerful patterns that pulse at the start of tracks like âEh Mane Ahâ and âKill Me With Bongo.â âYou have to feel the swing. It starts by knowing the bass drum beats,â continues Nabay. âYou get the flow and then you do one, two. One is your left foot and two is your right, and then youâre dancing.â
Nabayâs infectious bubu style quickly won dedicated fans across Sierra Leone, where his cassettes sold in the tens of thousands, blasting from local boom boxes across the country. Singing in Sierra Leoneâs lingua franca, Krio, as well as his native tribal Temne, English, and Arabic, Nabay considers his work, then and now, a letter to Sierra Leoneans, a call for them to remember the roots of their culture. âIâm the first guy who made it pleasant for people to come back to the culture, to love their culture. I made songs that encouraged them to concentrate on the culture,â Nabay muses.