By Ilyasa Baa
As a way of showcasing his creativity and the culture of Sierra Leone, Nathaniel Jones with stage name Top Shatta Fums is planning to gather creative artistes together for a big exhibition to boost the tourism industry of the country.
Having started his music career in 1996 as solo artiste, Fums discovered the Optimistic Group three years later. As a social club also in music, Optimistic Group did their first compilation album produced at Island Studio at Lumley sometime in 2002. This compilation album titled: Kuss Kass featured prominent artists like Pupa Baja and Baw Waw Society among other highly rated musicians in Freetown. This album hit Freetown and other provincial towns considerably leading to many performances by Fums and his colleagues. In the musical awards organized by Cassette Sellers Association (CSA) and Dr. Julius Spenser’s Premier Media, Optimistic Group emerged as the best musical group with the best R and B album. Their second album titled: Nor Rush Am was launched at the Brima Atouga Mini Stadium in the east end of Freetown.
“I am happy doing music and arts side by side as a creative artist and a good vocalist” , Fums disclosed to A-Z Magazine. He said it has come to the time for him to organize guys in the arts industry to showcase the country. He maintained that the exhibition will help portray the country’s good image nationally and internationally.
He lamented that a country like Gambia in the sub region seems to be outdoing Sierra Leone in terms of arts and culture because many talented artistes don’t have sponsorship or the capital to invest in the industry.
According to Fums, the creative arts industry can play key role to the development of the country through tourism.” Our art works lure tourists into the country considerably,” he noted, adding that there is need for the government and development partners to open up their doors and support the proposed exhibition.
However, Fums spends his weekends painting old pictures of Sierra Leone like a woman grinding groundnut on the grinding board with a bottle, portraits of past heroes and heroines, the Cotton Tree as it were after independence in 1964 and so on.
“Mostly, I enter my studio at night to do music vocally and instrumentally”, he added.
Being the founder of Total Music and Graphics, this Sierra Leonean artiste, hails from the Creole ethnic group.
His creativity genius is not limited to singing and painting only but he also makes wrist bands and chains, ‘kushay’ as well as ‘gara tie dye’ and installs billboards. He serves as a trainer to a number of youths in Central Freetown especially school leavers who are finding it difficult to make ends meet.
Produced by Daddy Cool, engineered by Jimmy Fox and mastered by Wise Beat, the single hit titled: Gbomb Sweh is one recent track of his, done at his Total Music studio at Percival Street, that is gaining high momentum in the city.
Since 2017, he has been performing Witch Korkor with live bands thrilling the young and old. In that track, Fums tries to expose human beings referred to as ‘mortalman’ in the Krio language as perpetrators of evil, that some people in society should not be trusted, as there are lots of enemies of progress in society. His song also advises us to be careful with people we meet in life.
Africa being the cradle of civilization is regarded as the birthplace of artistic exploits. This continent producing the rhythms that continue to shape the contemporary music landscape. In the 1970s and 80s, American musicians turned to Africa when pop and jazz witnessed revival.
Today a lot of artistes from the west are coming to Africa for her music and creative arts. However, Africa’s global share of creative industries remains negligible as less than 1 % of the world’s $624 billion trade in creative goods goes to the continent. Bringing Africa’s creative industries to the forefront would be a tremendous force for economic development on the continent.
In South Africa, for example, it is estimated that 44% of DVD profits are lost to piracy. Strong intellectual property laws need to be enforced for the creative industries to thrive in Africa.