On the cover of Kaley Bag’s 2020 single “D Sai Wae Ar Komot,” a group of young children stand on the hull of a fishing boat. The vessel, carved of deep wood that once shined like the children’s faces, is now battered and falling apart, and the sea it travels is a canal filled with trash. The children, dressed in vibrant hues of red, yellow, and blue, are nearly camouflaged by the brightly colored plastic bottles that cover the ground. For Kaley Bag, this is the world he wants to showcase when rapping about Sierra Leone.
Born in Bo City, Kaley Bag (Tamba Mbayo) is a 29-year-old hip-hop and afrobeat artist. From a young age, Kaley Bag had a talent for writing rhymes, but his songs were often thrown out by his parents who didn’t believe that music was a suitable career. Despite obstacles, Kaley Bag continued to rap and compete in cyphers in his hometown. Growing in notoriety, he traveled to Freetown to compete in the African Young Voices cypher. Kaley Bag went on to win the competition and continued undefeated for two years, quickly establishing himself as a mainstay in the Sierra Leone hip-hop scene.
“This na D place wae r grow / This na D place wae R born / The ghetto D place wae R know”
Kaley Bag “D Sai Wae Ar Komot” (lines 17-19)
In “D Sai Wae Ar Komot,” Kaley Bag raps about life in the ghettos of Sierra Leone, wrought with widespread poverty and few opportunities. The lyrics detail families sleeping twenty to a room, describe the odor of neighborhoods without sanitation resources, and highlight the high rates of crime committed by individuals desperate enough to kill for a chain, watch, or phone. Fed up with these conditions, Kaley Bag speaks for everyone in the ghetto when he raps, “We fed up, we taya, we need a messiah…money we desire, we sick and we taya,” (lines 78-83). Laced with the anger of his delivery, listeners can hear the hopelessness of these lyrics which reflect the disappointment and despair felt by communities who have lived in the margins of society, watching their government ignore the issues that plague them.
In the song’s powerful third verse, Kaley Bag tells listeners a story about his own experience of grieving a friend to illuminate the pervasive presence of death in the ghetto. Kaley Bag raps,
Now he is gone he was my own little brother
Dem mami nor get laugh dem papay nor dae play
Early debt don boku dem young boy nor dae tae
We mosque nor dae full up nor to all man dae pray (lines 36-39)
In this brief vignette, Kaley Bag shows how the death of his friend reverberated through his entire community, plunging many into a state of grief. In this verse, listeners are left with no sense that the young man who lost his life ever got justice. Instead, prayer at the mosque is the only thing that brings comfort to this community. Ultimately, “D Sai Wae Ar Komot” is a powerful protest song that sees Kaley Bag using his voice to shed light on social issues in Sierra Leone.
Listen to “D Sai Wae Ar Komot” and more by Kaley Bag on:
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music / Audiomack
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