Palm-wine music

Palm-wine music
Stylistic origins	Kaiso/Calypso, African music
Cultural origins	Kru people
Derivative forms	Highlife

Palm-wine music (known as maringa in Sierra Leone) is a West African musical genre. It evolved among the Kru people of Sierra Leone and Liberia, who used Portuguese guitars brought by sailors, combining local melodies and rhythms with Trinidadian calypso. Palm-wine music was named after a drink, palm wine, made from the naturally fermented sap of the oil palm, which was drunk at gatherings where early African guitarists played.

Palm-wine music was first popularized by Ebenezer Calendar & His Maringar Band, who recorded many popular songs in the 1950s and early 1960s. Palm-wine music left an influence on many styles, especially soukous and highlife. Though still somewhat popular, the genre is no longer as renowned as it once was. Other renowned palm-wine musicians include Koo Nimo (aka Daniel Amponsah), S. E. Rogie, Abdul Tee-Jay and Super Combo.

See also

• Music of Sierra Leone
• Music of Liberia

References

• A brief introduction to Palm Wine Music