Giving Voice to Hope: Music of Liberian Refugees
Buduburam CD project website at University of Alberta International
Contents
Overview
The University of Alberta has a long and rich history of partnerships in Africa. Recently, a number of faculties along with University of Alberta International have been supporting initiatives in Ghana that involve the University of Ghana, a rural Ghanaian village, and Buduburam Refugee Settlement.
Buduburam is a Liberian refugee camp located west of Ghana's capital, Accra. With the first refugees arriving in 1990, the UN High Commission for Refugees has helped provide shelter for thousands of people fleeing Liberian civil wars. Once home to over 40,000 inhabitants, Buduburam is currently undergoing transition as residents attempt to re-establish their lives in Liberia.
The University of Alberta is walking with this community on their voyage of return to Liberian society.
The Music
Popular music has emerged within Buduburam Refugee Settlement, responding to musical inclinations of residents and the need to express individual and collective experiences of displacement, loss, reconciliation, and peace.
The University of Alberta, in a cooperative multi-faculty initiative involving faculty, staff, and students, is engaged in the production and distribution of a music CD, entitled Giving Voice to Hope: Music of Liberian Refugees, featuring 16 Liberian musical groups who have resided as refugees in Buduburam. The music CD is a creative initiative to further explore the social impact and realities of civil war and refugees. Musical recordings will represent life in Buduburam through several genres: traditional, gospel, hip hop, rap, R&B, and reggae.
The music represents musicians hailing from many regions of Liberia (see map).
The project is being implemented in partnership with the Centre for Youth Empowerment (CYE), a Liberian NGO founded by war-stricken Liberian youth who sought refuge in Buduburam. CYE is committed to the pursuit of peace, development, education, good health, and sanitation, and has been an instrumental leader in the ongoing rehabilitation of Liberian refugees.
Project Goals
In addition to introducing talented musicians to a North American audience, the project has several goals:
- Post Conflict Healing - encourage musicality among youth as a form of community building
- Global Education - engage U of A students in a participatory way in raising awareness about civil society and refugee-related issues, support education about Africa at the U of A, and support a successful African-based NGO (CYE) focused on developing youth leaders of tomorrow
- Fund-raising - establish a U of A endowment which will support U of A student-focused learning initiatives in Africa, and generate revenue for the Liberian musicians and CYE
- Research - document musical life of refugee camps and understand how and why music can be used as a tool to overcome realities of conflict and dislocation
CD Launch
An offical CD launch and reception will be held in September 2009 (date TBD).
Contact
For more information, please email us
Upcoming Events
Design Celebrating Hope: An Exhibition of Student Design Work for the Buduburam CD Project
Exhibition Dates: May 19 - July 4, 2009 and September 1 - 24, 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 21, 2009, 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Fine Arts Building Gallery, 1-1 Fine Arts Building, University of Alberta Campus
Curators: Bonnie Sadler Takach and Aidan Rowe
This exhibition visually documents how Visual Communication Design students in the Department of Art and Design worked collaboratively with members of University of Alberta International and the Department of Music to create dozens of visual concepts for the Buduburam CD Project, Giving Voice to Hope: Music of Liberian Refugees.
This exhibition is supported in part by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. The student design research project was supported in part by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund from the Office of the Provost.
Track samples (0:30)
1. No More War (5:50) Morris Haynes
2. Power (6:00) S-Man (Samuel Taylor)
3. A Zaa Me:Rpo Wedeh (4:10) Samuel Johnson
4. Stop the Violence (4:10) Big Seen
5. Take Away (4:36) Soul Whisperers
6.We Are All Liberian (5:19) Calabash Unite Us All
7. Je T'adore (5:13) Representorz
8. Peace Must Prevail (4:13) Shadow (Samuel Morgan)
9. Ah Mama (Africa Let's Sing) (3:59) Timothy Faya Bomah
10. About Time (4:18) Universal Vision
11. Come Together Africa (2:32) God's Family
12. Gbai Kai Yaa (4:25) Constance Exploit Bowier
13. It’s True (3:25) Interpretors
14. Shine for Jesus/Brille Pour Jesus (4:10) Helbert Collins
15. Give a Little Love to the Children (4:23) Alaric Crump
16. CYE Theme Song (1:48) Blessed Brothers
