Palm-wine music (known as maringa in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

) is a

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

n musical genre. It evolved among the

Kru people The Kru, Kroo, Krou or Kuru are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to western Ivory Coast and eastern Liberia. They migrated and settled along various points of the West African coast, notably Freetown, Sierra Leone, but also the Ivo ...

of Liberia and Sierra Leone, who used

Portuguese guitar The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Presto ...

s brought by sailors, combining local melodies and rhythms with

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

calypso to create a "light, easy, lilting style". It would initially work its way inland where it would adopt a more traditional style than what was played in coastal areas. It would eventually gain popularity after Sierra Leone musician Ebenezer Calendar recorded songs in the 1950s and 1960s and continues to hold a small amount of that popularity.

Etymology

Palm-wine music was named after a drink,

palm wine Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm tree such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in va ...

, made from the naturally fermented sap of the oil palm, which was drunk at gatherings where early African guitarists played.

History

This music was created from a fusion of local and foreign sailors, dock workers, and local working-class people who would go to palm-wine bars to drink and listen to music. Portable instruments and local string and percussion merged to create this style. It was out of this genre that the traditional two-finger plucking of a guitar came when musicians played it similarly to how they played the local lute or harp. This style was typically played in a syncopated 4/4 metre.

1920s-1940s

In the 1920s, a Kru taught Ghanaian highlife guitarist Kwame Asare (or Jacob Sam). His Kumasi Trio made their first highlife recordings for Zonophone in London in 1928. As the music spread from the coast into the hinterland, the sound of the traditional Akan

harp lute The harp lute, or dital harp, is a musical instrument that combines features of harp and lute and to increase its compass of the latter. It was invented in 1795 by Edward Light., (though an earlier form is shown in the "'' Garden of Earthly Del ...

seperewa The seperewa, also known as seprewa or sanku, is a Ghanaian (specifically Akan) harp-lute, similar to the dagaare/ sisaala ''koriduo'', the Mandé kora, the Gere duu, and Baoule aloko. Description The seperewa belongs to a class of harp-lu ...

was infused and this evolved into the odonson or Akan blues and was called the "Native Blues".

HMV Records His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

and

Parlophone Records Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

distributed albums of the Akan blues in southern Ghana. This was in the 1930s and 1940s and featured artists like Jacob Sam, Kwesi Pepera, Appianing, Kwame, Mireku, Osei Bonsu, Kwesi Menu, Kamkan and Appiah Adjekum. At its peak of popularity in the 1930s, there would be about 200,000 Native Blues records sold per year before production was stopped due to World War II.

1950s-1960s

Palm-wine music was first popularized by

Sierra Leone Creole The Sierra Leone Creole people ( kri, Krio people) are an ethnic group of Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Creole people are lineal descendant, descendants of freed African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and Sierra Leone Liberated African, Liberated Af ...

musician Ebenezer Calendar & His Maringa Band, who recorded many popular songs in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar impro ...

and

highlife Highlife is a music genre that started in present-day Ghana in the 19th century, during its history as a colony of the British Empire and through its trade routes in coastal areas. It describes multiple local fusions of African metre and wester ...

were influenced by palm-wine music. Though still somewhat popular, the genre is no longer as renowned as it once was. Other renowned palm-wine musicians include

Koo Nimo Koo Nimo (born Kwabena Boa-Amponsem on 3 October 1934), baptized Daniel Amponsah is a leading folk musician of Palm wine music or Highlife music from Ghana. Biography Born in the village of Foase, in the Atwima District of the Ashanti Region i ...

(a.k.a. Daniel Amponsah),

S. E. Rogie Sooliman Ernest "Rogie" or S. E. Rogie (1926 – 4 July 1994) was a highlife and palm wine music, palm wine guitarist and singer from Sierra Leone. Biography Sooliman Ernest Rogers was born in 1926 in the town of Fonikoh, Pujehun District in sou ...

, Abdul Tee-Jay and Super Combo. Agya Koo Nimo is another renowned Ghanaian singer who is popularly referred to as the "King of Palm-wine music". The "Grandfather of Highlife", as he's often called, uses his music to tell life stories which has greatly influenced the Ghanaian and other West African music scenes. He was awarded the lifetime achievers award at the

University of Education Winneba A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in Ghana.

References

External links