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Emmerson Bockarie

 

Emmerson releases a brand new Album “9 Lives”

Emmerson Amidu Bockarie (stage name Emmerson) is a Sierra Leonean Afropop singer who has become well known in his country for lyrics that promote social change, and that criticizes corruption in the government of Sierra Leone. He sings in the Krio and English languages.

Bockarie was born in kenema. He dropped out of a computer engineering program at the Njala University to pursue his aspirations in music. His first release was a mixtape called Bodyguard Compilation, Volume One (2002), which contained an original single, “Yu Go See Am”. A studio album followed in October 2004: Borbor Belleh, with supporting vocals by Velma “Vee” Richards. His later albums include 2 Fut Arata (2007), Yesterday Betteh Pass Tiday (2010), Rise (2012), Kokobeh (2013), Home and Away (2014), and Survivor (2016). In August 2020 he released a new Album “, “9 Lives”.  Among his previous singles are “Telescope” (2015) and “Tutu Pati”.

One of Emmerson’s anti-corruption-themed protest songs, “Borbor Bele” (which means “Potbellied Boy”), Spoke to the frustration and disillusionment Sierra Leoneans felt towards their leaders/ruling class. The Album largely addressed the existing  kleptocratic institutions and the culture and ideology that drives them.The *borbor bele* song spoke on many of the reasons on why the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party will eventually loose to the All People’s Congress, in the Sierra Leonean general election, 2007.