Roots Archives Forum

there are a few jamaican musicians in addis and shashamane, like sydney solomon but not that much. I know the 12 tribes have recorded a few sets in ethiopia but I mean this is not ethiopian reggae. I had some ethiopian friends in addis who used to play reggae but as it was said this was more bob or gregory isaac's covers than real creation. I also heard a true ethiopian band very influenced by reggae but I can't remember the name, i'll dig it out.
globally speaking ethiopians love reggae and most of the pop singers are influenced by it but there is no true roots ethiopian reggae going on in ethiopia as far as i know.
and a very good reason for that is material : it is very hard to find true roots out there and there are so little places to play, and so little studios.
the few producers invest in pop music and the jamaican producers invest in jamaican singers playing classical modern reggae /dancehall. Most of the ethiopian underground music and creative sounds ( a few were mentionned above) are living abroad where they can access more sounds and get the material conditions to play.

I tend to disagree that it is only due to lack of material resources. I cannot speak with regard to live bands, but if you consider reggae parties not so much infrastructure is needed. Still there seems to be nothing much going on in Ethiopia. Kenya on the other hand has a very lively scene with several "soundsystems" operating in Nairobi. Even in Kisumu they had regular reggae parties when I was there. I had the impression the ordinary Ethiopians are not so much into reggae compared to Kenyans e.g.

when I speak about the material conditions I also consider the difficulty to access real reggae music in Ethiopia. What comes to the ears of Ethiopians is mainly through radio as a very small and elite minority accesses downloading with internet and cds. It is hard to find roots reggae out there, especially if not living in addis. Furthermore nearly nobody has instruments, you'll never see a guy walking in the streets with a guitar, and this has to see with the fact that they are very poor. I agree material condition doesn't explain everything but I can assure that it is a very important explanation because, yes, ethiopians love reggae when they hear it, but it's hard for most of them to discover other reggae tunes than radio pop/reggae.

I also think Mengistu's regime and the difficult years after Selassie also ruined the ethiopîan musical creativity that was so strong in the seventies and sixties. But this is not only about reggae. you can't compare today's teddy afro with the great sixties singer Mahmoud for example..