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Musicians sing out for violence free elections in Sierra Leone

Over a dozen Sierra Leonean musical idols banded together this week to bring a message of peace to their fans across the West African country ahead of the 11 August general elections.

These will be the first Presidential and Parliamentary elections since the end of the country’s brutal civil war in 2002 to be run fully by Sierra Leoneans, with support from the United Nations and the international community, and the first since the conflict ended to take place without the presence of UN peacekeepers.

"These elections could make or break Sierra Leone," said Artists for Peace spokesperson Haroun Ahkim Dumbya a.k.a. Wahid. "If we pick up guns and fight each other again then the country will break. We want to be part of the making.

"Music is our weapon against violence. We don’t want to fight with guns any more – now we fight with the mic," he said.

Ninety-one percent of the country’s 2.8 million eligible voters have registered to cast a vote for their future. Fifty-six percent of them are under the age of 32 while women account for 49 percent. For a country so recently synonymous with extreme violence, child soldiers and smuggled gems, this is a time of real and tangible hope.

However, cases of intimidations and violence have been widely reported since official political campaigning started in July, and so with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and other partners, the artists mobilized a nationwide ‘Go Vote, No Violence’ to use their popular influence to encourage voters to cast their ballot in peace.

"When we perform, we have the power to say to the hungry man, to the broke man: ‘put your hands up in the air!’ and they respond. We say ‘turn to the person to your left and tell them that you love them,’ and they do it. With this tour, Artists for Peace wants to use that power to make a difference in the August elections – to get people to say ‘no to violence’," said Wahid.

"Music is one of the most important resources of Sierra Leone," said UNDP Resident Representative in Sierra Leone Victor Angelo. "Artists for Peace represent what is best about the country and the UN is proud to support them so that the message of peace reaches all the citizens of the country," he said.

Over the next week, the eclectic group will bring their newly recorded track ‘Go Vote, No Violence’ along with their individual mix of Hip Hop, R&B and Slouk – a Sierra Leone extension of Zouk – to the towns and provinces of the West African country.

Their commitment to a violence free Sierra Leone won’t end on polling day, stresses Wahid: "Peace is not something that you achieve one day and then you go home and sleep. You have to keep listening to the people... Even after the elections, Artist For Peace will stay together; we will keep using our music to say what the people down there can’t say to the people up there," he said.

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Artists for Peace:

Interview opportunity:

Haroun Ahkim Dumbya a.k.a. Wahid is available for interview. The non-partisan Artists for Peace are supported by the United Nations Development Programme, the Government of Sierra Leone’s National Communication Strategy Project and the Centre for the Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA). Their full line-up is as follows: Wahid, Cee Jay, Daddy Ish, Father G, Problem M, Dallas B, Black Juice, Bu Berry, Lady Haj, K1, Laurish, Peoples, B Black, Camouflage, along with MC Huzo Rex, DJ Clef, Vamboi and the Freetown Players.