Bonjo, first take us back to the time before African Head Charge. Where do your musical roots lie?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "Before African Head Charge I was involved in Nyahbinghi in Jamaica. Then at one stage I came over to England and joined Desmond Dekker and I also worked with Creation Rebel and Prince Far I for a while. From that came On-U Sound and that's really where the African Head Charge story started."
Where did get your skills as a Nyahbinghi drummer?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "That was when I was still back in Jamaica. My grandmother ran one of the biggest Rastaman camps on the island called Kemps Hill (Clarendon, red.), a place that also brought forth people like Claudius Henry (Reverend Claudius Henry formed the African Reform Church in the late 1950's. He called himself "the repairer of the breach". In 1959 he organized a false repatriation movement, selling hundreds of fake passports to be used for passage to Africa. Henry preached self-government under British colonial rule and espoused an alternative Black Nationalism founded upon building an autonomous African nation. He called for a new social order in which exercise of one's own agency is the only way the poor working class could escape the destruction and captivity of Jamaican society. He preached a return to Africa as essential to the formation of this autonomous realm apart from colonialism. His influential preaching inspired radical sects of Rasta to enact violent overthrow of oppression. These uprisings in 1958 along with Henry's radical ideology pushed the government to raid Henry's camp finding a stockpile of arms, ganja and a correspondence to Fidel Castro resulting in the arrest of Henry and the wide-spread harassment of Rasta's in general. Thought to be planning a military take-over Henry was imprisoned for six years. By 1968 he had set up a new church in Kemps Hill and begun pursuing a more pragmatic notion of building Africa in Jamaica, red.) and his disciples for example. I basically grew up there. On the Sabbath we would chant and play the drums and we were taught how to play from a very young age. It had nothing to do with performing yet, it was just a churchical spiritual thing."
At which stage did you feel you wanted to become a stage artist then?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "That really sort of happened by accident. I had some friends who were already in the music business and I used to help them out as a roadie once every so often. One day I went to rehearsals, smoked a couple of spliffs and because some of the musicians didn't turn up I started having some fun on the bongos. It didn't felt that much different from what I'd been doing in camp. I kept on playing left and right and that's how I eventually ended up with Desmond Dekker, Clem Curtis and The Foundations - who wrote 'Build Me Up Buttercup' - Dandy Livingstone and of course Creation Rebel (Originally the backing group for the late reggae great Prince Far-I - then still known as The Arabs - Creation Rebel worked with Sherwood from 1977-1980 and counted drummers Style Scott and Fish Clarke, bassist Clinton Jack, keyboardist Bigga Morrison, guitarist Crucial Tony and percussionist Slicker as its members, red.). After Prince Far-I died, I decided to start with African Head Charge."
When you started with African Head Charge, what was the idea you had in your head?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "The idea was to put all kinds of different rhythms together. Even when I was still living in Jamaica I already hung out in the Indian community whose music is rhythmically very different and I also spent time in the Pocomania (Afro-Jamaican cult descended from surviving forms of African religion mixed with Protestant elements from the time of the Great Revival in Jamaica in 1860-2, red.) churches as well. Toots Hibbert from Toots & The Maytals lived only a few yards from where I was living and his mother was a Poco-woman. I absorbed all these influences, but the idea to use them in a music project only came to me when I met Adrian Sherwood (English record producer best known for his work with dub music as well as for remixing a number of popular acts such as Coldcut, Depeche Mode, The Woodentops, Primal Scream, Pop Will Eat Itself, Sinéad O'Connor, and Skinny Puppy. He is co-founder of Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, and founder of Hitrun Records as well as Green Tea Records and Soundboy Records. His most well-known label is On-U Sound Records, red.). In Adrian I found a person with a vision who wanted to create something new and exciting and since I also had this vision of what I wanted to create, it seemed like the ideal match. That's also the reason why I've always stuck with On-U Sound even though it is struggling now. Bim Sherman passed away, Akabu/Valerie (Skeete, red.) is dead and Lizard (Keith ‘Lizard' Logan, red.), the bass player of On-U Sound is also no longer with us."
How big would you say has the influence of Adrian Sherwood on African Head Charge been?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "Well, Adrian knows his equipment, something I never learned about; I just play music naturally. Adrian is not really a musician as such though. The music we play with African Head Charge is our inheritance; it's something that was passed down to us through the generations. I feel irie that this gift was bestowed on me so I can travel all over the world to tell the people about Jah and let them know Haile Selassie I is the Most High who comfort I when I'm down, who give I strength and confidence when I need it and who made I repatriate mentally, physically and spiritually."
Indeed, in the true Rastafarian spirit you moved back to Africa and you've been living in Ghana now for quite some years. Was that an easy process or a hard road to travel?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "No, it wasn't a hard road because the seed was already planted in I from when I was a youth in Jamaica. I remember I was getting visions all the time when I was still a little boy; visions or dreams in which I was always flying. So I went to Claudius Henry and he quoted the Bible to me saying: " Let us speak of the patriot David, who is dead and buried but whose spirit is with us now and through his lineage Christ will rise up to sit upon his throne." (Acts 2, verse 29, Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, red.). When Haile Selassie I was crowned the 2nd of November 1930, this prophecy was fulfilled. All of those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, which is I&I the Rastaman, we know this and we will go and tell the world! Rasta is not about what you're eating and drinking or about your locks, but about what you know, about the truth you hold inside."
Of course Africa has many more rhythms to offer. Has that music influenced your work as well?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "Yes, even before I went to Africa I was already influenced by African music. I listened to a lot of Fela Kuti and Osibisa. These albums were like a university for me and I would just put them on and practise these rhythms. Mongo Santamaria was a great influence as well. At one stage I even joined an African band called The Funkees, which had a conga player in it called Sonny Akpan who would later go on to play with Eddy Grant. Whatever they told me to play, I would play it and it's while I was playing with this band that I got the name Bonjo. Then when I moved to Ghana, I learned of the Ga and Kumasi rhythms they have over there, so I tried to learn those as well."
On-U Sound is sort of on hold for the time being; they're not putting out any new material anyway, so where does that leave you recording-wise? Are you working on any new material?
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah: "Well, what happened is that when I went to Ghana in 1994, I stopped recording for about ten years. I felt there were too many things going on in the music business I didn't like. I'm a man of righteousness, truth and justice, but in the music business there are only few people who look at things this way; call them vampires or vultures or whatever. I didn't want to go down in the hole like Bim Sherman or Akabu, you know! Reggae music is here to purify the earth, so you can't come and treat it like whatever. I'm here to burn fire and I give praises to the Most High for giving I the strength to stand up to these things, but because I burn fire I got the reputation of being a troublemaker. I'm no troublemaker, I just deal with righteousness. What we are doing with African Head Charge is real and the people can feel that and that's why I can still come back and play even after a break of ten years. There's definitely something in this music that no one can stop. What was hidden from the wise and prudent, now shall be revealed to the babe and suckling! Nothing can stay hidden anymore! Let's stop all the manfusion and establish a new way. Everything has a reason though and all this struggle and strife has definitely made I stronger. That is my message to everyone: "Stay strong mentally, physically and spiritually, no matter what!""