Every time they lift up their voices in song, the old wounds of the civil war that displaced them from their homes and took the lives of friends and relatives are healed a little bit more. It’s impossible to escape the trauma of war, and doubtless Ruben Koroma and his bandmates in Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars still awaken some nights to the sound of gunfire and the screams of their countrymen ringing in their ears. But the music that took them out of the refugee camps in neighboring Guinea and put them on the world stage continues to soothe their wounded souls, while at the same time putting smiles on the faces of those who have come to love them for the music they make. In fact, Koroma told The Daily Times this week, those smiles are as much a balm as the music is. “One of the things that encouraged me was the happiness of the people,” he said. “I like to see people smile, and most of the members of the band, they also love to see people smile. I was a musician before the war, so I was used to seeing people with beautiful smiles, people getting together, people celebrating. It’s the kind of passion that is natural.” The band rose to prominence during the height of the Sierra Leone Civil War, when the Revolutionary United Front launched an armed conflict to overthrow President Joseph Momoh in 1991. The following year, a military coup removed Momoh from power, and the ensuing conflict displaced millions of residents of the West African country. Koroma and his wife, Grace, were forced from their home in Freetown, the nation’s capital, in 1997 and wound up in the Kalia refugee camp in neighboring Guinea, near the border. It was a perilous time, Koroma said; the camp was surrounded by military forces, and sporadic bombings and gunfire made conditions even worse. Their saving grace, he said, was music. The two joined up with guitarist Francis Langba and bassist Idrissa Bangura, other musicians in the camp they had known before the war, and they began to play to entertain their fellow refugees. It was an oasis of peace during an otherwise turbulent time, he said. “When we started doing this, it’s like a way to heal ourselves,” he said. “We had a lot of bad memories, and we wanted to get away from thinking about these bad memories, so we decided to sing. When you sing, you free the mind from all of the terror, and while we were doing this, our fellow refugees forgot about their lives, too, and most of their worries. They would get happy and jump up and down.” A Canadian relief agency donated instruments and a sound system, and the Refugee All Stars were born; when American filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White met the band in the Sembakounya Camp, they were so inspired by the story that they opted to document their travels and performances. During that time, the war came to an end in 2002, and the band returned to Freetown to record its debut album, “Living Like a Refugee,” which was released in 2006. The film, released the year before, documented the process, and the world soon discovered what Niles and White had found — that in the midst of chaos and terror, music could unite and heal. (Incidentally, the band’s first performance on American soil was in Knoxville, to which they’ll return this weekend for a performance on Market Square, downtown.) The film would go on to win numerous awards, and the band traveled to the United States to accept some of them. At that point, Koroma said, he realized that the group’s music could make a positive impact far beyond the borders of West Africa. “From then I started thinking, ‘This is not a Sierra Leone journey or a Guinea journey; this is a world journey,’” he said. The film and the album opened additional doors, and soon the Refugee All Stars were on stages from New York, at the Central Park SummerStage, to Japan (at the Fuji Rock Festival) to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. They appeared on “Oprah,” contributed music to the soundtrack of the film “Blood Diamond” and took part in a U2 tribute album; they continue to perform around the world, and they’ve gone on to release three additional albums, including “Libation,” released earlier this year. All have been well-received, because regardless of the cultural differences or language barriers, Koroma said, music speaks to the human heart — and that’s something everyone can understand, he added. “I just feel like it’s something that everybody can respond to,” he said. “Whatever the language of the listener, they will be able to understand the rhythm, the beat, the harmony and the groove of the music. And playing it reminds me of home, wherever we play — because the only difference is sometimes the language or the culture or the food. People are the same, and they have the same smiles and the same eyes I’m used to seeing in Africa.” Preservation Pub presents “International Music Day” PERFORMERS: Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, Marina Orchestra, The Theorizt WHEN: 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23 WHERE: Market Square, downtown Knoxville HOW MUCH: Free CALL: 524-2224 ONLINE: sierraleonesrefugeeallstars
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 17:23:05 +0000
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