Daily Planet

Unlike scores of ‘girl groups’ put together to make a quick buck, Les Amazones de Guinée are the real thing - an all-female band who are all members of Guinea’s Military Police Force and who have been making great music since their formation in 1961.

Guinea’s first president after independence in 1958, Ahmed Sekou Touré, saw culture as an essential weapon to cut across tribalism, heal colonial wounds and forge a national identity. Along with scores of other musical groups that were instrumental in forging a new West African music, he formed L’Orchestre Féminin de la Gendarmerie de Guinée.

Originally an acoustic band, they added electric guitars, drum kit, sax and horns in 1965 and later abandoned their military khaki for colourful traditional Guinean clothes and began touring internationally. They recorded their first album in Paris in 1982. Sekou Touré’s death in 1984 all but killed Guinea’s music industry. The Amazones did better than most, continuing to play around West Africa as a working band in the army, but tours outside the continent were no longer an option.

A new studio in Bamako, Mali, and the interest of Paris-based producer Ibrahima Sylla sparked their return to recording after a 25-year lapse. Led by bassist Commandant Salématou Diallo (who is actually the head of a 650-soldier camp), the group hopped in a minibus and made the difficult journey along muddy roads from Conakry to Bamako to record their spirited and inspiring CD Wamato. Although death and retirement have left them with only five original members, the group is strong and tight, with some great guest vocals from Aminata Kamissoko and a set of songs that celebrate Africa and womanhood.

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Lucky Oceans

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Lucky Oceans