Ifang Bondi, part of the story by Karamo Sabally.

Dear Gambia-L-ers.

I would like to contribute a little bit from my experience, so that you can
judge for yourself.

For a musician, and especially for a drummer, it is not easy to fight his
rights in the music industry, because afterwards when the music is created
and arranged, they will tell you: the drummer is just filling in, it is
background etc . 
But let me tell you what was my contribution.

When I joined Super Eagles I was with my group in Zichinzor, Casa Vedettes
Band, but because Malang Gassama left the group Super Eagles (in 1971),
Ousou Njie asked me to help them. They wanted me to come and stay with them
and my mother influenced me to do so.

I came with a lot of experience (I played for 6 years with Labah Sosseh, who
treated me always honest, as a brother; and later 4 years with Casa Vedettes
Band) and I had lots of ideas. I had been studying the rhythms of the tribes
in Cassamance and Gambia. I am a drummer/ percussionist and created and
still create my own rhythms, which  come from my own inspiration. Nobody in
Ifang Bondi ever told me: play this or that. After my meditations I came
with new ideas, wih original rhythms and together with my brother Samson
Gassama we created a lot of Afro Manding beats. The other musicians liked
it, especially Ali Harb. He always came with Fula or Mandinka songs.
Not many of the musicians I played with want to mention my contribution.
Every musician who asks me to join is happy and surprised; they use what I
give them, but my contribution is taken for granted, maybe because I am a
drummer? I can give you many names of musicians who have been using my
creations for joined compositions and recorded it; but what did I earn from
it? Even, if I invented a name, others took it.
Well, at the end I don't want to give my ideas any more, I keep them for
myself untill I find somebody who can play and deal honestly with me, the
way it should be. 

18 years of my life I have been contributing to Ifang Bondi, we were living
as a family.  I was playing, rehearsing, arranging, composing (I gave my
ideas, I gave my own creations), I helped to keep the accounts, helped Pa
Lamin with finding jobs. My life, day and night, was for this group. After
18 years when Ifang Bondi was stagnant in Nederland a Dutchman wanted to
help the group. But one day he came with a contract in which we were forced
to accept one bandleader, with all the decission-power and bigger earnings
than the others. One bandleader and the rest of the group were just members.
What did this man know about our history. He didn't know how we were
working. In Ifang Bondi nobody was the boss, we all were contributing to the
creative part of the music and we respected each other as brothers.
I refused to sign that contract under those conditions (I still have that
contract) and than he told me: You are out of the group! Just like that. The
other musicians were around, there was nobody who called me to ask what's
going on, or discuss the matter with me, complete silence. It was a big
shock. 

I was lucky to have a very good friend, an American who appreciated my
talent and with whom I have created very interesting joined-compositions for
European classical balletgroups in Nederland. We were playing the music life
with the balletgroups. It was an innovation. One of them was written for the
choreographer Krisztina de Châtel, who won a precious price with the
project. (Holland Festival,1987). We asked Niao Nying to join us with the
performing. The press was unanimous asthonished.
I was invited to the USA and I left Ifang Bondi behind in Nederland.
Disappointed with them and very hurt.

Later I have to read that one after the other designated himself to be the
only creator of the Afro Manding Sound. Now I really want to know: Afro
Manding Sound,  is it played only with guitar, or bass, or only singing, is
it management? Is it Wolof, is it ndaga? Was it one man telling the others
what to play? 
No, it is rhythms combined with melodies and lyrics. If somebody was telling
me, play that and that rhythm, who was that person? Show it to the public.
Why the sound changed drastic when I left the band?
We were singing "stop tribalism". Well, the good example still has to be
given.

Look the song Saya. It was created by Paps and me, but everybody had to put
his name under it. What I had to accept since I started to play with Ifang
Bondi is to much, I never like to talk about it. I think, the truth will
come out anyway, one day.

I see that the younger generation has to learn from it. I want to warn them.
Many talented musicians will join bands in Africa or in the western world
and enthousiastic give their ideas, not realising that their talent is their
property, their merchandise, their means of survival. But there will always
be an other singer or a bandleader or a promoter who quickly registers the
creation on his name in Europe or USA. Many Gambian musicians don't know
their rights. 
The album Saraba was registered in Dakar, but who received money, not me in
any case!

If you read a biografy of Ifang Bondi, you would think that it is a one man
band with a group of loose members. But everybody who knows the original
group knows that it was a group of highly talented, creative, skillful
musicians, each of them with ideas and composing capability on a
world-level.

When I have to give my biografy, people in the 'West' do not want to believe
that I was part of Ifang Bondi, because they have never read about me. They
doubt if I was one of the creators of Afro Manding. For example: one Dutch
guy ( who didn't know nothing about the group) was telling me one day, very
angry: "the only creator is Badu Jobe". That's how a carreer can become
spoiled.

And than somebody is saying that I am retired! I don't want to hear that! I
am very very busy with my music, on my way.

I am sorry that the posting is long, but it is just a tiny little bit of the
story. And it is necessary to explain myself.
I will never forget Ali and Pa Touray, may their soul rest in peace.

Peace to all of you and hope to see you better times.

Karamo Sabally.

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