Jollay (Djole) devil

[bubudi]

jollay is a youth society from sierra leone which exists in freetown, bo and also to the north, mainly among the krio, aku and kru peoples but also among the temne and bullom (mandenyi) tribes. it is a political/entertainment society.



the lingua franca of sierra leone is krio, therefore the spelling of the name is 'jollay' (lay krio) although 'jole' is the recognized formal spelling. the spellings 'djole' and 'yole' are french. in fact, 'yole' is a variant pronunciation among the susu and some maninka subgroups.

during the ode lay masquerades and at political events the 'jollay debul' (devils - the krio equivalent to 'fetishes' or 'masks') come out to give a show. the masks vary but usually have the theme of a young woman, although the dancer wearing the mask is always male. the society members take it in turns to wear the mask and perform the dance. the musical ensemble includes 6 square drums called siko and the beaded gourd shaker called shɛgburɛ. sometimes the 'mɔt ɔgan' (mouth organ, or harmonica), 'sɔ ɛn nɛf' (saw and knife, a kind of metal scraper) and kongoma are also used. money is usually collected during such events to fund the society's activities.

jollay music was very popular in sierra leone around the 70s when some groups formed, integrating the beat and song genre with other popular influences and eventually with a full band. the first such jollay group was black star jollay.

[the kid]

Cheers bubudi, very interesting.

Are there any Sierra Leone master drummers i wonder? Seems to have the geographical location to have a big tradition of drumming. Any other famous rhythms from Sierra Leone

And do you know are the bullom (mandenyi) decendents of the Manding ? (there is a tribe north of the gambia who travelled up from mande country 1000 years ago and settled there called the numu)

[Djembe-nerd]

This looks to be different than the usual village drumming videos posted here. The dresses are not quite african and I saw strawlers and the singing was through speakers i guess.

This is more urban atmosphere.

[bubudi]

Are there any Sierra Leone master drummers i wonder? Seems to have the geographical location to have a big tradition of drumming.

sierra leone have over 20 ethnicities. the mandingo (maninka), kuranko, susu, kono, loko, mende, vai and yalunka are those that belong to the mande subgroup. not every single one of those have djembe in their tradition but will have other forms of drumming. the krio use a number of bata (krio word for drums, taken from yoruba), including jenbe/sanga.

we don't really hear much about sierra leone in general and their government never promoted the arts the way guinea did. so i couldn't give you many names off the top of my head. you can check out a cd of ansumana bangura on sterns music. he was drumming for miriam makeba from 1979 until 1980 when he was stranded in hamburg during one of her tours and he kinda stayed there also, earthcds released a whole lot of sierra leone music, including susu and temne music. three famous groups are the sierra leone national dance troupe, the freetong players international and freedom cultural ambassadors.

sierra leone national dance troupe
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=350421583713

freedom cultural ambassadors
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?videoid=101760661

Any other famous rhythms from Sierra Leone

to mention a few: yokui, mane, gumbay, salia, baskeda, gbutevangeh, yamama, comasireh, tyamba, soko, soli.

And do you know are the bullom (mandenyi) decendents of the Manding ?

all i know is that the bullom language is not placed in the mande group. the bullom are found only around the south coast of guinea and north coast of sierra leone. they heavily intermarried with the temne and susu and their language is virtually extinct.

The dresses are not quite african and I saw strawlers and the singing was through speakers i guess.

you'll get singing through megaphones and western clothing in villages as well, but this video was shot in freetown.

[guedom]

...but this video was shot in freetown.

is right? the uploader has written come from Gambia.

Here 2 Jollay masks, from Temne and Aku people.

[guedom]

One question for english speaker in the comments of youtube video are talking about "fairy" stuff this word refer to a fairy like in the movies Cinderella or Peter Pan.. or is a colloquial word for homosexual man?

watching the mask can imagine a homosexual stuff.

Thanks

[the kid]

... ..

I don't know.. the comment your refering to is

""Another thing is dat this is not a "hunting" dance" .. this is "fiahry" or "fairy" in english. ""

I'm guessing here they are referring to a spirit. Is "fiahry" a Krio word ??

I'm not sure about that mustache on the mask. It's a little suspicious. ..

[guedom]

that mustache on the mask. It's a little suspicious. ..

hehe is not only for the moustache, the little figure over Aku face mask man is a woman, and the temne has 2 faces, for this reasons my doubt, but like bubudi say many figures can be represented in jollay mask, i have others.. so can think that finally refer to a spirit. Anyone know more context about?

[bubudi]

it's not really a hunting mask. hunting refers to a secret society that men enter into. in the old days it was very much to do with hunting but nowadays hunting may not be involved at all. the odelay masquerades involve hunting societies that compete in displays and the winners would gain political power. jollay is part of the odelay masquerades so there is definitely some overlap there.

fiahry is not the same as fairy. it's an aku (gambian creole) word for this devil. i can see the irony that it's a 'tranny mask' but that's not why they call it fiahry . i'm not sure exactly why, but i'll ask around and see if i can learn more about this.

[e2c]

Popular music in Sierra Leone is quite a mixture of things - and I'm admittedly not as up on it as I'd like to be.

but... There's Krio-style calypso and palmwine guitar music from the 50s; also called maringa (sometimes spelled "margingar").

Younger groups - like the Refugee All-Stars - incorporate a variety of rhythms and genres into their performances.... much like Habib Koite does with his band.

I've got a couple of examples of maringa/palmwine music on my blog:

http://spinninginair.blogspot.com/2010/03/maringa.html (Freetown's Leading Sextet)

http://spinninginair.blogspot.com/2008/ ... egant.html (Ebenezer Calendar and his Maringar Band)

http://spinninginair.blogspot.com/2007/ ... phone.html (S.E. Rogie, one of the greats of the palmwine style)

http://spinninginair.blogspot.com/2006/ ... theft.html (Ebenezer Calendar again)

* am sure there's much more info. on sites like Afropop.org, the Leopard Man's site, etc.

Hope you enjoy the music!

Edited to add: link to the general info. page on music from Sierra Leone on the Afropop site - http://www.afropop.org/explore/country_ ... a%20Leone/

[e2c]

Are there any Sierra Leone master drummers i wonder? Seems to have the geographical location to have a big tradition of drumming.

sierra leone have over 20 ethnicities. the mandingo (maninka), kuranko, susu, kono, loko, mende, vai and yalunka are those that belong to the mande subgroup. not every single one of those have djembe in their tradition but will have other forms of drumming. the krio use a number of bata (krio word for drums, taken from yoruba), including jenbe/sanga.

we don't really hear much about sierra leone in general and their government never promoted the arts the way guinea did. so i couldn't give you many names off the top of my head. you can check out a cd of ansumana bangura on sterns music. he was drumming for miriam makeba from 1979 until 1980 when he was stranded in hamburg during one of her tours and he kinda stayed there also, earthcds released a whole lot of sierra leone music, including susu and temne music. three famous groups are the sierra leone national dance troupe, the freetong players international and freedom cultural ambassadors.

sierra leone national dance troupe
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=350421583713

freedom cultural ambassadors
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?videoid=101760661

Any other famous rhythms from Sierra Leone

to mention a few: yokui, mane, gumbay, salia, baskeda, gbutevangeh, yamama, comasireh, tyamba, soko, soli.

And do you know are the bullom (mandenyi) decendents of the Manding ?

all i know is that the bullom language is not placed in the mande group. the bullom are found only around the south coast of guinea and north coast of sierra leone. they heavily intermarried with the temne and susu and their language is virtually extinct.

The dresses are not quite african and I saw strawlers and the singing was through speakers i guess.

you'll get singing through megaphones and western clothing in villages as well, but this video was shot in freetown.

With respect, I'm wondering if you could provide some more sources for the things you mention above? Am sure there are books, websites, etc. for further exploration and it would be helpful if you could include info. like that in posts of this kind.

Cool? (And thanks in advance!)

[bubudi]

i've provided links where they exist. you will find you learn the most by talking to people, and experiencing the culture. being able to speak krio has also helped a lot. so the bulk of things that i mention won't have an internet link or book. very little has been documented on sierra leone and even then it tends to focus on negatives like the civil war or diamond trade.

[e2c]

i've provided links where they exist. you will find you learn the most by talking to people, and experiencing the culture. being able to speak krio has also helped a lot. so the bulk of things that i mention won't have an internet link or book. very little has been documented on sierra leone and even then it tends to focus on negatives like the civil war or diamond trade.

Have you lived there? (Just curious; I've been wondering how you came to learn Krio...)

As for wanting to learn, I think it's clear that I was asking about cultural information (sociological, historical, linguistic; as well as content relating to music, dance etc.), not diamonds or the civil war...

And living where I do, it's pretty unlikely that I'm going to be able to find anyone from Sierra Leone to talk with, though that would be nice!

[e2c]

Documentary on new music from (and in) Sierra Leone...



Film website: http://www.sweetsalone.com/

I know this film focuses mainly on hip-hop and other contemporary music styles, but I thought it might be of interest to folks here.

[bubudi]

at the dawn of this year a ngo called madegn (means 'let's meet') formed by a group of returned citizens with a vision to form a cultural renaissance in sierra leone held a 2 day culture festival in freetown. the second night of this festival featured some jollay devils.

the main movement that the jollay devil does is called 'shek wes' (shake waist). the devil has what is referred to in krio as 'bele bele tumba' (big booty). tumbalicious!



the instruments in the ensemble include harmonica, gumbay (gumbe) drums (aka siko), jembe and shekbure and kongoma.



there is a flirtatious exchange between the jolay female devil and her male counterpart and she enjoys the attention she gets but also vehemently rejects his advances.



the salia song is also performed here with the same devil



this is a sand eater who also performed on the same night while the same ensemble played along. after he eats copious amounts of sand, he loosens his pants and appears to defecate the sand into his hands!