Guinea-Bissau's Super Mama Djambo [band] (information & song examples)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post provides information about the Guinea-Bissau band, Super Mama Djambo and the Mama Djambo spirit which the band is named after. This post also showcases five songs that are performed by Super Mama Djambo.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Super Mama Djambo for their musical legacy. Thanks alsot to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT SUPER MAMA DJAMBO [band]
From http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Super+Mama+Djombo
"Consumer Guide Reviews:
Super Mama Djombo [Cobiana, 2003]
"From tiny Guinea-Bissau--formerly Portuguese Guinea, wedged between Senegal and Guinea proper, independent since 1974, population well under a million then and well over a million now--came a band that lasted a decade, even played one of Fidel's Havana youth conferences, but recorded only once, leaving six hours of master tape in Lisbon in 1980. Where the music of nearby Cabo Verde is dominated by mestizo variants on Portuguese fado, Guinea-Bissau had few white settlers, and if Super Mama Djombo recall anyone as they mix and match across West Africa, it's early Orchestra Baobab, hold the salsa. Soukous and highlife echo in the guitars, and the notes suggest that these songs in many languages--six tribal tongues in addition to the urban Kriol they favored--needed to be sung. Take for instance the title of the post-independence "Dissan Na M'bera," which means, the notes say, "'Let me walk on the side of the road'--don't run me over with a state car. A-"
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From http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/smd
Super Mama Djombo
"[Super Mama Djombo is]"One of the great West African electric roots bands of the 70's and early 80's. With five interlocking electric guitars and several-part vocal harmonies, this fifteen-person orchestra blazes through fresh interpretations of traditional rhythms."
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From http://muzzicaltrips.blogspot.com/2010/03/super-mama-djombo-na-cambanca-1980.html
"Super Mama Djombo represented the 1st cultural identity visibility for this small country [of Guinea-Bissau].

Independence was won in 1974, and that year brought the final formative elements to the band: freedom, euphoria, and bandleader Atchutchi... The band would become politically charged. It would imagine a new, unified national identity that was neither Portuguese nor divided by indigenous ethnicity. It would help re-invent Kriol, the synthesis of Portuguese and African languages spoken in the cities, that the revolution had transformed into a common language of national unity. (SMD cd liner notes)"
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According to Super Mama Djambo's facebook page, the type of music that this band performed/performed is "Gumbe"; Afro-Latin.
Here's information about Gumbe music from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumbe indicates that Gumbe music is "a style of music from Guinea-Bissau, the term 'Gumbe' likely comes from Gombey music from the Bermuda, and the Jamaican square maroon drum called goombay could also be related to the namee of this music genre." In addition, that Wikipedia page indicates that "Gumbe is mostly influenced by the fast tempo zouk style (music of the French Caribbean popularized by Kassav in the 1980's); though the same term also refers to any music of the country. True gumbe is a fusion of several Bissauan folk traditions."
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Additional informaton about Super Mama Djambo is included in the summary statement of the video given below as Example #5.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE MAMA DJAMBO SPIRIT
The only information that I've been able to find online about Mama Djambo [spirit] are brief mentions of that spirit that are included in articles about the Super Mama Djambo band. Here's that information with citations:
"Mama Djombo is in the local pantheon a female spirit with strong powers, called upon by the guerrilla hiding in the forests to protect the liberation movement. A name, a symbol that let alone represented an ideal for independence and decolonializaion of which the orchestra became spokesman. Mama Djombo became soon the orchestra representing the government of Cabral, which accompanied them in their travels around the Portuguese speaking Africa, playing in Cape Verde, in Mozambique, Angola and also in Europe."
http://tpafrica-eng.blogspot.com/2009/12/super-mama-djombo-ar-puro.html

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"Zé Manel was born in Bissau, the capital city, on May 22, 1957. At age six, he formed a band to play music at boy scout camp. Soon the band was playing weddings, baptisms and birthday parties, and its members took their craft so seriously that some were forced to leave. By age seven, young Zé, playing drums and acoustic guitar, had become the main attraction of this band, named Super Mama Djombo after the female spirit of a sacred offering place". When Guinea-Bissau won its independence from Portugal years later, Orchestra Mama Djombo became a primary vehicle expressing the new national identity...http://www.cobianarecords.com/manel_bio.html
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I added italics to highlight that sentence.

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"Mama Djombo is the name of a spirit that many fighters appealed to for protection during Guinea-Bissau's War of Independence." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mama_Djombo

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FEATURED VIDEOS
These examples are presented in chronological order based on their posting dates on YouTube, with the oldest dated examples presented first.

Example #1: Super Mama Djombo - No Cambanca



Ólafur Páll Geirsson, Uploaded on Aug 1, 2009
Super Mama Djombo playing their song No Cambanca on Icelandic TV.

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Example #2: Super Mama Djombo - Djan Djan



Ólafur Páll Geirsson Uploaded on Aug 2, 2009

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Example #3:Super Mama Djombo - Sol Maior Para Comanda ( Photos by Knut Andreasson )



nickivour, Published on Dec 15, 2010

Super Mama Djombo / LP : Sol Maior Para Comanda

After Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1974, Super Mama Djombo was the most popular band in the country for more than a decade. Their lyrics in Guinean Creole represented the young nation´s aspirations for better future and were politically charged. The rhythm of gumbé, a fusion of Creole and traditional music with diverse ethnic origins was infectious and people rapidly got on to their feet to dance. The band toured in neighbouring countries as well as abroad, and gained many fans.

From WorldService :
....The third volume, "Sol Maior Para Comandante", is really another album in the Regard Sur Le Passé style, including a storyteller recounting the historic events. The difference with Bembeya's Regard is the fact that the events (the heroic acts of Amilcar Cabral in the luta for the independance of Guinea-Bissau) weren't from a (relatively) distant past, but from a few years before the release of the album!
Like the Bembeya classic, the album not only conserves a very interesting chapter of African history, but also offers some brilliant music from a country which has remained relatively underexposed in the study of and research into African music....

Many Thanks to WorldService !!!

Photos: Guinea Bissau
Mr Knut Andreasson and Ms Birgitta Dahl visiting liberated areas in Guinea Bissau in November 1970

Photographer and original exhibiter: Mr. Knut Andreasson

Norwegian photographer Mr Knut Andreasson and former Speaker of the Swedish Parliament Ms Birgitta Dahl together with a Swedish delegation, visited the liberated areas in Guinea Bissau in November 1970. This visit gave them an opportunity to talk to Amílcar Cabral in his own environment and gain a deeper understanding of the struggle for independence from Portugal. Andreasson and Dahl later compiled a book* in Swedish on their trip. Andreasson also produced a photo exhibition to inform the Nordic people about PAIGC and the colonised areas. Not only the exhibition, but also most of the photos from this period, were later donated to the Nordic Africa Institute by Andreasson's widow. The exhibition was donated to the Amílcar Cabral Foundation by the Nordic Africa Institute and presented by Ms Birgitta Dahl in connection with the 80th anniversary celebrations of Amílcar Cabral's birth in September 2004.

The pictures show how life was in the liberated areas. How people went about and did their daily chores, but also the military side, the soldiers and their weapons. As Guinea Bissau has plenty of rivers, the boat was an important mode of transportation, in particular as the Portuguese blew up most of the bridges. Over 99% of the population was illiterate when the struggle started in 1963 so education was important and PAIGC ran camp-schools for children and adults. About 75 such schools existed - one of the first was the Escola Piloto in Conakry. The new ABC book was funded by Norwegian students and printed in Sweden. The pictures also show cultural events and health care facilities.

Some of the following pictures are published in the book* by Knut Andreasson and Birgitta Dahl, where it is possible to read mote about the situation in Guinea Bissau at the time.

*Guinea-Bissau : rapport om ett land och en befrielserörelse / Knut Andreassen, Birgitta Dahl, Stockholm : Prisma, 1971.
From https://www.liberationafrica.se/audiovisual/photos/guinea_bissau/
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Update: January 2. 2019- This sound file replaces one that was originally embedded in this post but is no longer available.
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Example #4: AFH241 - Super Mama Djombo



Afrikafestival Hertme Published on Jan 25, 2014

Late 70's Gumbe from Guinea Bissau!
Vocals: Malam, Baba, N'Tchoba, Dulce, Herculano, Lamine
Lead Guitar: João Mota
Rhythm Guitar: Cesário Miguel
Bass: Chico Caruka
Drums: Zè Manel
Percussion: Armando, Jaozinho

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Example #5:AFH246 - Super Mama Djombo
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Afrikafestival Hertme, Published on Jan 25, 2014

[Editor's Note: This video and the video given as Example #4 in this post includes a summary statement that quotes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mama_Djombo]
"Super Mama Djombo is a band from Guinea Bissau who sing in Guinea-Bissau Creole. The band was formed in the mid-1960s, at a Boy Scout camp, when the members were only children (the youngest was six years old). Mama Djombo is the name of a spirit that many fighters appealed to for protection during Guinea-Bissau's War of Independence.

In 1974, the politically conscious band leader Adriano Atchutchi joined. The group became immensely popular in the young country, which had gained its independence the same year. They would often play at President Luís Cabral's public speeches, and their concerts were broadcast live on radio.

In 1978 group traveled to Cuba and appeared on the eleventh youth music festival in Havana.[citation needed] Early in 1980, they went to Lisbon and recorded six hours of material. The first album Na cambança was released the same year, and the song Pamparida, which was based on a children's song, became a huge hit throughout West Africa. In 1980 Cabral was overthrown, and the new regime under João Bernardo Vieira no longer supported the band. They had fewer opportunities to perform, and broke up in 1986.[2] However, the soundtrack to Flora Gomes' film Udju Azul di Yonta (The blue eyes of Yonta) (1993) was recorded by Adriano Atchutchi and other members of the original band under the name of Super Mama Djombo.
In 2012, Super Mama Djombo toured Europe...The band said they hoped the tour would "show people that Guinea-Bissau's loudest sound is not that of gunfire, but that of music."

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