Anatomy of a Song: From “Sweet Mother” to “Lagos Night”

<p dir="ltr">Cuba is 100 miles from Key West. Bruce Springsteen certainly knows that great music comes out of Cuba. But does anyone think he might decide to record a medley of Compay Segundo tracks like “Guajira Guantanamera,” “Chan Chan,” plus some of his other classics, and in Spanish? Seems unlikely. </p> <p dir="ltr">But this is precisely what happened when the Soukous Stars recorded “Lagos Night,” an epic 1994 medley of songs by Prince Nico Mbarga, a highlife musician from Nigeria, sung in the original pidgin English. <br></p><figure><iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mRjkv_NGwFM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></figure> <p dir="ltr">The first Mbarga song in the medley is “Sweet Mother,” which is one of the top 20 best-selling African songs in history.<br></p> <p dir="ltr">Mbarga’s father was from Cameroon. He introduced Mbarga to music as a boy, but he died of a sudden illness. Mbarga’s mother had to raise him, his sister and two brothers on money she earned as a peasant farmer. “Sweet Mother” was recorded in 1976, and its wide international appeal derives from the way it shows the quite innocent nature of a son’s eternal gratitude to a mom who has struggled very hard to raise him:</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>When I dey hungry my mother go run up and down / she dey find me something whe I go chop oh! / Sweet Mother a-aah / Sweet Mother oh-e-oh!</em></p> <p dir="ltr">Mbarga and his Rocafil Jazz band would record 17 albums and singles, mostly between 1975 and 1981. Mbarga is a Cameroonian name, and Mbarga’s band included many Cameroonians. However, Nigeria’s repressive regime deported two million immigrants in 1983, including those band members, and the band broke up.</p> <p dir="ltr">Rocafil Jazz had toured London, and later Mbarga performed with a London-based former Rocafil member, Cameroonian vocalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisiana_Tilda&action=edit&redlink=1">Louisiana Tilda</a>. She would eventually record her own solo version of Mbarga’s classic “Sweet Mother”), as well as other Mbarga classics.</p><figure><iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mkp3WnUu_WQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></figure> <p dir="ltr">Years after “Sweet Mother” hit the top of the charts, Rocafil Jazz at long last planned a reunion for a 50-state tour of the U.S. Rushing to pick up the visas, Mbarga’s car ran out of gas, so he grabbed a motorbike, and was tragically killed when a car smashed into him. When his elderly mother learned what happened to her boy, she fell down in shock and died soon thereafter.</p> <p dir="ltr">Here are the Mbarga songs included in Soukous Stars’ “Lagos Night” medley:</p> <p dir="ltr">“Sweet Mother”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Christiana”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Aki Special”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Wayo-in-Law”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Stella”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Wellenga”</p> <p dir="ltr">“Oh Death”<br>Four of these original tracks, including “Sweet Mother” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3RSLGbEWds" target="_blank">can be heard on Mbarga’s <em>Aki Special</em> album</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr">The album, by Lokassa et Soukous Stars, entitled <em>Megamix Vol. 1</em>, was released by Syllart Records in 1989.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>dj.henri is a New York City DJ who has performed at the Apollo Theater, B.B. King</em><em>’</em><em>s, Symphony Space, and elsewhere. He is also the creator of </em><a href="http://radioafricaonline.com"><em>radioafricaonline.com</em></a><em>.</em><br></p>