Compared to most African countries, Guinea-Bissau is small both in size and population. But the country’s distinctive home-grown Afro-Latin music combines soulful singing with hypnotic grooves.
Guinea-Bissau lies in West Africa bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east. Since the 1500s the area was under nearly continuous control of the Portuguese. Before winning independence in 1974 it was known as Portuguese Guinea.
Guinea-Bissau is part of Lusophone Africa – former colonies of Portugal where Portuguese remains an official language. Other countries in this group include Cape Verde, Angola, and Mozambique.
When a wave of independence swept Africa in the late 1950s and 1960s, many colonies achieved independence from their European colonizers more or less peacefully. But Portugal resisted those efforts, resulting in the Portuguese Colonial War from 1962 to 1974 (also known as the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence). It ended when the Carnation Revolution overthrew the authoritarian Salazar regime in Portugal in 1974. Some of the war’s fiercest fighting took place in Guinea-Bissau.
The country’s population of two million is divided among 32 ethnic groups. Although the official language is still Portuguese, most people speak Portuguese-based Guinea-Bissau Creole, and that applies to song lyrics as well.
While the music of other Lusophone nations is heavily influenced by Portuguese styles like fado, Guinea-Bissau’s music is based on a traditional folk style called gumbé. There are virtually no pre-independence music recordings due in part to the lack of recording studios at the time.
Below I’ve highlighted a few of the most prominent musicians from Guinea-Bissau, including performance clips. At the end of the article, you’ll find a Spotify playlist featuring a broader array of artists.
Super Mama Djombo
Super Mama Djombo was named after Mama Djombo, a spirit that many fighters appealed to for protection during the war for independence. Originally formed in the mid-’60s, the group didn’t really hit its creative stride until the arrival of the brilliant songwriter and bandleader, Adriano Atchutchi, in 1974.
Post independence, Super Mama Djombo was the most popular band in the country for more than a decade. Their politically charged lyrics in Guinean Creole, set to the rhythm of gumbé, created a danceable soundtrack to the revolution.
In 1980, they went to Lisbon and recorded six hours of material, which was released on five albums during the following years, before the band broke up in 1986. Most of the band’s albums are long out of print, but you can find some of them on streaming services.
To get a taste of their sound, there are two albums I especially recommend. In 2003, Cobiana Records released a compilation called Super Mama Djombo that featured album tracks and some unreleased material. It’s still in print. Then, in 2007, several band members reunited and recorded Ar Puro in Iceland. It easily stands with the band’s finest work, and is usually available for a reasonable price on Discogs.
If you take away nothing else from this article, I hope you’ll check out this group. Super Mama Djombo was a truly great African band that even fans of African music haven’t discovered yet.
From the band’s 2012 European tour (singers’ mics are off at the beginning):
Kimi Djabate
Multi-instrumentalist Kimi Djabate is adept at guitar, balafon (African wooden xylophone), and kora. He grew up in a musical family and was given his first balafon at the age of three. When he was just 19, he joined the national music and dance ensemble of Guinea-Bissau on their tour of Europe. Following the tour, he decided not to return to Africa and settled in Lisbon, Portugal.
After a decade spent developing his sound, he released his first solo album in 2005. It and the two albums that followed paid tribute to his griot heritage and were fairly traditional. His most recent album, Dindin, released in 2023, was a breakthrough musically, retaining the foundation of gumbé rhythms while adding influences ranging from Afrobeat and desert blues to jazz.
Bandé-Gamboa
Back in 2020 Executive Producer/DJ “Fininho” Sousa led a project to reinterpret extremely rare or unreleased tracks from Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. The project was dedicated to the memory of Amílcar Cabral, the intellectual force and strategist behind the independence of both countries, whose dream was to have them forever united.
The album – Horizonte – Revamping Rare Gems From Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde – featured two all-star bands, one from each country. These world-class musicians included a mix of older and younger generations. The brilliant French producer “Guts” made sure the recording quality matched the outstanding performances.
Over the years I’ve enjoyed many styles of Afro-Latin music from Africa, South and Central America, and the Caribbean. But I keep returning to the deep gumbé grooves of Guinea-Bissau. If you like the music in these clips, I’ve put together a Spotify playlist with 20 of my favorite tracks.
Click here for a Spotify playlist of music from Guinea-Bissau.
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