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Alanouwoly Salifou Sylla
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Salifou's Life and Achievements |
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Salifou Sylla was born into a musical family in Guinea. His father, also Salifou Sylla, a tailor and dancer died
when little Salif was 1 years old. His uncle, Fode Kouyate, enjoyed a successful recording career with the traditional group, Fatala.
He spent a substantial amount of time with his grandma as his mother was often travelling and trading to make ends meet.
He grew up as an African country boy, hunting in the bush, climbing trees for fruit and nuts, living by the seaside
where his mum used to own a small boat; she hired the boat out to a man who didn’t come back one day.
Many of his friends died young in circumstances that I can’t imagine, for instance being strangled by a snake and drowning in the sea. Like most of his contemporaries he attended a Muslim school to learn to read and write the teachings of the Koran. He didn’t start music until he was a teenager after learning as an apprentice to do building work. Once he decided to learn music however he became very serious, apparently making everybody practice all day, every day. At first he primarily trained as a dancer. |
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| He founded, choreographed and performed African rap with the dance group Septcopains.
They recorded a video in Ivory Coast, of which sadly no copy survives.
In this period he also performed as a comedian.
When the group disolved he dedicated himself to learning traditional African music and he could play all the different instruments that make up an African ensemble: Djembe (Lead drum); Dun-dun, Sangban, Kenkeni (bass-drums); Kirin (wooden slit drums); Gongoma (calabash with 4 tones); Bolong (African Bass, 4 strings),Siko (square drum) and various small instruments. He then toured and worked all over West Africa: Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Sierra Leon. Salifou’s culture and language was Susu, but he knew about 10 other West African languages and also the songs, music and dances from different cultures (Mandinka, Jolla, etc.). He knew the whole piece with all the different parts for the instruments, the song, dance and story and significance of it and also the history behind the different rhythms. |
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| When he came to England he worked with Sewa-Education, Drumcafe, Joliba drum school,
Music For Change, Live Music Now, Parenting Project Stratford-upon-Avon, Drumming on the Isle of White,
and many more individual projects. He helped to record the music for the Wild Thornberries Movie and he
appeared in a few TV programs. He performed in and out of Europe and recorded a CD with his group Tamala London.
(See Music)
He always had big plans for the future including to advance opportunities for the people he left at home. He taught his two young boys many valuable skills already and it is so sad that he can’t continue to do so. Salifou chose the name Alanouwoly, which means "Thank God" in Susu (Salif's language), for his website. So "Thank God for Salifou Sylla" is a very fitting name for his foundation/legacy. When writing for his website I realized that there was so much more to him than making a living as a musician. Music and art at their best are about communicating the deeper meanings of shared human experience. They unify and connect people. Salifou had the gift to do this. |
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| Salifou was always in a rush to achieve his aims, namely to create
opportunities for those he left behind and to impart his deep knowledge
of African music, dance and culture to those here who wanted to know
it. I often found if someone was interested he would sit for hours
with them in his shed and teach them for free. He also had made links
with like-minded groups here such as Drumzkool
in the Colchester area. Drumzkool are a very accomplished group of children, aged 8-11, who
he also taught and guided for free.
Salifou knew highly complex music and traditions from all over West-Africa and I always felt that it was highly beneficial for everyone here to learn and appreciate his African culture, especially Guinean culture; it is not very westernised and full of very valuable and rich traditions. It is such a different way of life. Salifou wanted people to understand and respect where he came from. |
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| Salifou supported his musical group,
Tamala Africa
which currently comprises of 25 Guinean musicians living in Gambia,
financially and with anything else he could. He had started building
a guest-house to create opportunities for work for Guineans and cultural
exchange with Europeans. Salifou was not prejudiced against anybody, he made everybody his family, he accepted everybody and could work with anybody. He had this huge gift of connecting people from all sorts of backgrounds through his music and personality. I feel we owe it to him to continue this work and the world deserves to receive his gifts and ideas even posthumously. I think we should learn from his life and try to practice the immense generosity he showed everyone and which was actually too much for one human being to carry. His many different laughs and giggles still echo around the house and the places he has been. He leaves a huge silence that needs to be filled. Go to Tributes to Salif to read more. |
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Nansady Keitaassociation-diadia
Joliba Drum School
Master Compo
Mbilla Arts
Batafon Arts
Drum Cafe
Seckou Keita
Jamo Jamo
HMRC charity no XT25715