Wesseh Freeman (or Weesay, 1976–2018) was a musician from
Monrovia, Liberia
Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As th ...
. He became blind as a child
and turned to playing the guitar to support himself and his family.
He was self-taught, and built his guitars out of oil cans.
[
A video of him playing on the street went viral in 2016, and a Facebook page created for him garnered more than 7 million visitors. Freeman also demonstrated how he built his guitars, from an oil can, a neck shaped with a machete, and strings from bicycle cables. He said he made $4 a day playing his instrument.] It brought him international attention (from people like Shane Speal
Shane Speal (born May 20, 1970) is an American musician, historian, and instrument builder who is best known for building and promoting cigar box guitars. He is the author of the D.I.Y. musical instrument book ''Making Poor Man's Guitars'' (2018, ...
) as well as funding to build him a home. He died on 27 February 2018 in a road accident in Monrovia.[
]
References
External links
Facebook page with videos
1976 births
2018 deaths
Liberian guitarists
Male guitarists
Liberian male musicians
21st-century guitarists
21st-century male musicians
Outsider musicians
Blind musicians
Liberian blind people
Road incident deaths in Liberia
Musicians from Monrovia
{{Guitarist-stub