A unique collection of field recordings of extraordinarily moving and evocative songs performed by women accused of witchcraft, taken from where they have escaped to special safe-haven settlements. Witch hunts in Ghana are not a metaphor, and violence and death are metered out on some individuals on whom bad harvests, infertility, poor weather, accidents or any other bad luck, as well as those who have mental or physical disabilities. The songs, sometimes solo, or often in call-and-response form, are sung in rare Ghanaian dialects, sung unaccompanied or with with minimal acoustic instruments, usual just a drum, and even without understanding them, tales of suffering and fortitude are palpable. The recordings, very much in the Alan Lomax tradition and in a style that could be described as very old, motherland forerunners to the blues, were made by producer and author Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Zomba Prison Project), and Italian-Rwandan film-maker Marilena Delli Umuhoza. The 20 titles, from the fragile voice on Hatred Drove Me From My Home to Abandoned (Forced Into A Life of Prostitution) speak for themselves, but the emotions that filter through are just as powerful, including the one-minute Only God Can Judge Me, the featuring just a drum and weeping to the upbeat group number, Love. During a week when suppression and violence against women is even more to the fore, and on the west’s special Mother’s Day, there couldn’t be a more important album. Out on Six Degrees Records.
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