By Todd Anders Johnson | Salem Music
I met Asume Osuoka on the Jubilee Global Connections Tour in Boulder, Colorado last year. He works with Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a Nigerian-based human rights advocacy organization that focuses on environmental issues. Asume lives in the Niger River Delta, a region that is rich in oil and poor in human rights and environmental conditions.
With Asume, I discussed a song that I composed around the lyrics of a poem written by Kenule Beason Saro-Wiwa titled "Saragua".
Asume mentioned interest in helping promote the song in Nigeria. The poem calls upon the rainmaker to wash away the stains of strife, but the oppressive conditions that Ken Saro-Wiwa speaks of have not been alleviated.
Inspired by our meeting, I recorded the song in Boulder, Colorado and flew to Washington D.C. in mid September to visit with Jubilee USA Network, Bono’s One Campaign, Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth regarding our collaborative promotion of the song internationally.
The meetings were very inspiring. I felt honored to have my music aligned with campaigns with such global scope and with international support. It is also exciting to realize the interest in having music and arts included in educational and activist campaigns.
I have been a musical composer, educator, and recording and performing artist for 24 years. I received a Bachelors degree in regional development in Geography from the University of Washington and have been an activist for social justice issues for many years. My group, Salem, fuses socially conscious lyrics with neo-soul, Afro-Cuban, jazz and hip-hop music.
I have had the opportunity to perform throughout Colorado with three exceptional musicians from West Africa who are also featured on the song. Nigerian vocalist, Bola Abimbola, merges Nigerian and R&B vocal stylings. Fara Tolno, from Guinea and Mohammad Alidu, from Ghana, are master percussionists who perform on djembe, dundun and talking drum on the song and the introduction as well.
I believe that through the long tradition of resistance music, we can celebrate while contesting the injustice that we identify before us as a global community.
Saragua
by Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa
We have returned
With empty hands
And hollow minds
From the thunderstorms
Raining blood
Oh mighty one
Whose wink brings rain
We did not pray for war
Wash away the stains of strife away
We’ll speak no more of coups and colonels
And raids at the dead of night
We’ll forget the bombs
Build scores of tombs
And bury the dead
Receive us mighty one
With a cleansing shower
Wash away the stains of strife away
We’ll speak no more of coups and colonels
And raids at the dead of night
We'll be posting Todd's collaborative song "Saragua" within the next few weeks.
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