AnkAnum

AnkAnum’s Song Of The Motherland is an essential ‘lost’ album in the history of black British music. Made in 1985 the record saw the Jamaican-born British-based poet-spoken word artist make a number of key cultural and political statements that flowed from his grass roots activism and an enduring interest in several fearless anti-imperial movements. AnkAnum was fully focused on ‘consciousness raising.’ For the album he worked with Ras Messengers, who laid down percussion for his texts, though he occasionally backed himself on drums. Things went to the next level at Simba, a community space in Woolwich, south London that had a small recording studio as well as a crèche. Through informal sessions Song Of The Motherland took shape. “We used to meet there to vibe and jam,” AnkAnum recalls. “The musicians were Ras Messengers and a few others, Fyna Lioness and Baba Heru Khuti (Cosmo); he was the main driver for getting the thing recorded, he played all the sax and flute. It was about putting my poetry, cultural and political ideas into a form that was accessible.” While Song Of The Motherland can be heard as part of the progressive British cultural tenor of the times, it is very much a personal work that sets out AnkAnum’s vision for a future of black self-realization while chronicling a number of his own experiences. The combination of AnkAnum’s thought- provoking lyrics and commanding delivery, which sees his voice hover over the beat at some moments and push more forcefully on others, gives the album a depth and colour that are substantially enhanced by a skilled blend of drums and woodwinds. As the respected activist Pepukayi says of AnkAnum. “This man is a griot with a tremendous depth of knowledge. He is a composer of songs and a player of instruments; whatever he does he does so well. He is really somebody of integrity and purpose.”