On December 1st 1983, Sierra Leone artist Soufian Kamara was born in Freetown. Soufian is better known by his stage name Souferior. At the early age of 13, Souferior came to the conclusion that he was destined for the music business. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until he went to Guinea in 1998 that he decided to make music his career.
Since Souferior grew up in Freetown he was able to witness and experience the Rebel War that ultimately left a huge impact on many Sierra Leoneans. The Rebel War was classified as a Genocide because it lasted for a decade. When Souferior decided to share his experiences from that time through his music, he captured millions of people across the world.
Back in 2012 Souferior released a song called “Struggle”,which featured singer FEJ, that focused a lot on a poverty. The song encourages people that are not necessarily financially stable, to keep their heads held high because it will be okay. Souferior gets personal and tells his story of growing up and what he had to deal with when he basically had nothing. In one of his verses he starts off by saying:
“I was raised up from poverty, no shoes on my d*mn feet . . . sleeping on the floor with mosquitoes on my d*mn sheets, mama made ends meat”
He continued on later talking about what he witnessed during the Rebel War and said:
“Saw the Rebel War with people getting their hands split, chopped up and shot up , couldn’t understand it. Made it out alive for a reason and a purpose, now i’m breaking out of strap just to preach it through there surface”
While watching the music video for the song, you can tell that this song was made to inspire people around the world and not only those in Africa. It was made for us as whole to stand up together and to help those in need because you never know whose life you could save by just showing a bit of kindness.