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Music of Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone's music is a mixture of native, French, British, West Indian and Creole musical genres.

Palm wine music is representative, played by an acoustic guitar with percussion in countries throughout coastal West Africa.


Sierra Leone, like much of West Africa is open to Rap, Reggae, Dancehall, R&B, and Grime (music).

Sierra Leone National music[edit]

The national anthem of Sierra Leone, "High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free", was composed by John Akar with lyrics by Clifford Nelson Fyle and arrangement by Logie E. K. Wright. It was adopted upon independence in 1961.

Traditional music[edit]

The largest ethnic group in Sierra Leone (2009) is that of the Mel-speaking Temne people, 35% of the population. Next, at 31%, the Mende, along with 2% Mandingo, have music traditions related to Mende populations in neighbouring countries. Other recorded populations were the Limba ( 8%), the Kono (5%), the Loko (2%) and the Sierra Leone Creole people (2%), while 15% were recorded as "others".


The wars and civil conflict throughout West Africa,[1] have resulted in a decrease in the presence of traditional music artists.

Aranzadi, Isabela de. 2010. “A Drums Trans-Atlantic Journey from Africa to the Americas and Back after the end of Slavery: Annobonese and Fernandino musical cultures”. African Sociological Review 14 (1) 2010, pp. 20–47.

[1]

Ashcroft, Ed and Richard Trillo. "Palm-Wine Sounds". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East, pp 634–637. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books.  1-85828-636-0

ISBN

Stasik, Michael. 2012. DISCOnnections: Popular Music Audiences in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Bamenda & Leiden: Langaa & ASC Leiden.  9789956728510. [2]

ISBN