Karamo, thanks for sharing your past with us.  The younger generation can
learn a lot from you guys.  Keep telling us your story, because it is our
story.  As you can see, Gambians have not forgotten about you guys.  Thus,
the reason why we want to know how you guys are doing. Hey, you still got
that whistle? :)!  Please keep it coming.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou






>From: "M. Stofkoper" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: a little part of the Ifang Bondi story by Karamo Sabally.
>Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2003 13:30:16 +0200
>
>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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