Sierra Leone

“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 Sierra Leone’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 on 11 July, and so with sponsorship from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Sierra Leone’s National Communication Strategy Project and the Centre for the Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA), 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 Sierra Leone.”

In the course of this week, the eclectic group will bring their newly recorded track ‘Go Vote, No Violence’ along with their individual mix of Hip Hop, Rhythm and Blues, and Slouk –a Sierra Leone extension of Zouk– to towns around Sierra Leone, before returning to Freetown on Friday.

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: The 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.