Voice notes from the past
Elders, historians and neighbours telling Freetown's stories in their own voices.
press play, close your eyes
Lullaby
Gladys Casely-Hayford, read by Newgatenovelist (LibriVox)
15 tapes
Recordings that still belong to the people who made them. We don't play them here: we point you to where they're kept, and credit them.
2008
Stories from Sierra Leone ↗Recorded by Luke Wassermann; told by storytellers in Sierra LeoneStories told in Temne, Mende and Krio, among them the entries to a storytelling competition and the story that won it.
TemneMende
Radio drama in Krio, more than 5,800 episodes. The title means "lost and found". Talking Drum Studio grew out of Search for Common Ground's peace work in Sierra Leone from 2000, and the drama follows ordinary people living with what came after the war: land, health, school, money, and getting along.
1961
Limba stories and songs ↗Recorded by Ruth Finnegan; told and sung by Karanke Dema, Niaka Dema and others22 tape sides of Limba stories and songs from Kakarima and Kamabai, recorded by the anthropologist Ruth Finnegan in 1961–64, with some Krio stories. Kept by the University of Cambridge.
All rights stay with the people who made them.
Letters from the archive
Hear about new voices as they come in, by email, at most once a month.
Voice notes from the past
Record a memory on your phone, in Krio or any language: a street, a song, a day you won’t forget.
Record a memory