Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Alhaji Amara Sahone





He is tall and wiry, a quiet man, his face decorated with tribal tattoos,
 his compound small, but in a continuous process of rebuilding, and he has arranged small rooms to rent out, living with one of his wives and their children in a small room  at the corner of the compound.
 He is an excellent musician and has from time to time been part of traveling groups of singers and instrumentalists. He is a Jare, the Serehule word for the West African singer/historian.


*


"A man must be useful and always know his duty. This song
is always played for men who are brave and of use to others,
not for men who can be trifled with.
I am calling for men who can save the lives of other men
whenever there is trouble, when there is hunger
for those who can stand  and fight for their rights.
This song is for those men."  from Nege Sirimang

Alhaji Amara Sahone

reciting and accompanying himself



11 comments:

  1. The music of the word
    Hypnotic beauty without understanding : magic

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  2. Many thanks for this great music - I wish you a very happy new year!

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  3. seems packupload either hates me personally or just isnt workin.... any way to post another link ?.... again appreciate your hard work....

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  4. hi hunter,packupload simply doesn't work today-they do that frequently ...nothing personal ,I guess everything will be OK tomorrow.

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  5. thank you - - loving the sound of that fiddle on track 1, marvellous music.

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  6. Here there seems to be an error, Moro is sung in Pular, if I'm not mistaken, Moro, is sung by Satala Kurubally and by Jale Sowe.
    Listening to Amara, I note that the accent is not Soninke from Mali, seems from Gambia, thenI find this:
    This is the opening section of "Nege Sirimang," sung in 1974 by the Serrehule griot Alhaji Samara Sahone, who was living in a village outside of Banjul, the small capital of Gambia. He accompanied himself on the large version of the halam ..

    to be continued...

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  7. There are two mythical personages called Sirimang (Siriman, Seriman, Ceriman, Ceri or Sery) or perhaps both, they are the same, there is a famous hunter, Donso-jeli Siriman, present in countless songs, including a book of one of the tales, sung by Batoma Sanogo, celebrate reciter of stories, known as Segou Donso Sora.
    Then there is Djeli Siriman, brother of Djeli Balla Fasséké Kouyaté, the supposed inventor of the balafon, under the reign of Sumanguru Kanté, the original line of blacksmiths (only a blacksmith has the tools to carve the sheets of a balafon) Sundiata defeated Sumanguru and took his griot.
    The key word is nege = iron, Nege Sirimang.

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  8. The link takes me to a football betting site...

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