An appraisal of the Sierra Leone entertainment industry in 2019.

Freetown | March 2020 | SierraEye Magazine

2019 was a relatively fair year for Sierra Leone’s entertainment industry. At least we saw more sold-out gigs than the previous years, much as the country is yet to breakthrough the online or digital markets for major deals. Here is an assessment of how the industry flared in 2019.

Government’s Role

The creative industry has been a vital sector that contributes to job creation and boosts economic growth. Comparatively, it is mind-blowing to see the strides other African nations have made in entertainment, some even exchanging payslips and medals with Western stars and corporate institutions, while the Sierra Leone entertainment industry is stuck in a quagmire, unyielding and chaotic. Governments in and out have watched the creative industry crumbled. The importance of this sector has not been realised by any government in Sierra Leone, save for political campaign periods when they would use their social influence to canvass supports from electorates.

The Bio led-government announced plans to promote the entertainment and tourism industries during the State Opening of Parliament in 2018. Hopes were high, owing to the fact that his wife (Fatima Bio), graduated from the creative industry as an actress. Down the line, it has been pronouncements from either the Tourism Minister or another state functionary, with little or no effect.

In 2019, the Government through the Tourism Ministry held several consultative meetings various sectors in the industry to participate in the formulation an entertainment foundation named ‘Foundation for Arts, Culture and Entertainment’ (FACE). This proposed foundation is meant to serve an important role in regulating the industry, drive investments and engage government and the private sector for the growth of entertainment in Sierra Leone. A veteran music and film icon, Jimmy B was appointed to head ‘FACE’. The creation of this enduring structure has been opined to be seamless.

The industry is largely self-funded. No government loans or supports towards persons or companies investing in it, not to mention the corporate houses who are virtually not ready to give a facelift to it except for the pittance they give to celebrities in the name of sponsorship or brand ambassadors.

While a Nigerian artiste can make up to a million dollar from endorsements, Sierra Leonean artistes are struggling to attract endorsements worth $5,000 per year. Seldom, few of the nation’s top stars make a little over $5,000 from endorsements. The mobile companies and lately, the banks have been playing that role.

Music

The music sector has continued to be relatively thriving over the other sectors in the entertainment industry. More especially in 2019, we witnessed a busy entertainment calendar, and results from the box offices on gigs in 2019 were encouraging.

The usual dominance of foreign sounds, especially proponents of the afrobeat, continued unchanged. Songs from Davido, Tiwa Savage, Diamond Platnumz, Wizkid, etc, were mostly played in Sierra Leone more than any of our artistes.

Notwithstanding the power struggle from foreign products, some major gigs recorded success in the year under review. The maiden 21 Artistes 21 Stands show was successful, same as the Innocent’s 20 Years Celebration at Hotel 5-10 and ECOFEST. There were many other sold out music concerts across the country.

ECOFEST

The Oscars of the year was the 3rd edition of ECOFEST, which sold out to over 70,000 audience at the Siaka Stevens Stadium on the 29th November 2019. The show was headlined with the East African giant, Diamond Platnumz and Nigerian comedian Basket Mouth. It was, without doubt, the biggest entertainment event in Africa, which doubled the O2 Arena in London in terms of attendance.

The organiser, the CEO of KME, Lawyer Abu Bakarr Turay was once again hailed for creating a big music platform for both Sierra Leone and Africa.

Comedy, Film and Piracy

This is a sector that has recorded one of the biggest successes in the Sierra Leone entertainment industry. This especially so with stand-up comedy, all thanks to Mastamind SL Ltd which helped in giving life to stand-up comedy in the past years. Fast forward, stand-up comedians were the most sought after acts in 2019 due to the professional manner they carried out their crafts. Their services were in high demand, week in week out.

The movie industry in the other hand, has been the most deprived and unyielding sector in the entire entertainment industry and 2019 was no exception. Piracy has literally paralyzed filmmakers, who end up getting no returns from investments and are yet to attract Netflix and other online boxes. One major boost for the movie industry in 2019 was the Ebola documentary film ‘Survivors’, which got an Emmy Award nomination. But the sector remained a challenging one with poor capacity and lack of quality equipments. In all of these, piracy is eating deep into the movie sector.

Since the 2011 Copyright Act was passed into law, the practice has got some legality it would appear. More pirates popped up, establishing and registering businesses that engage in the act. It became devastating, excruciatingly annoying for the helpless entertainers who watched their intellectual property being exploited by criminals. There is no means of enforcing the Copyright Act, to the point that piracy has become a normal thing. Now, it is the inverse, musicians are now paying for their works to be pirated to at least gain popularity.

Big Sister returns

Social media went abuzz with jubilations when Zedzee Multimedia announced the Big Sister Season 2, a women empowerment reality TV show. The surprises in the announcement were the inclusion of other African countries into the show, the international coverage/audience/broadcast, and the $50,000 star prize up for grab. The CEO Zainab Sheriff was once again celebrated, after many had thought the show won’t come up since she broke up with her partners over a year ago. At the launch of the most anticipated show at the Bintumani Conference Centre, it was made clear that the show will commence in 2020 and not in 2019, in order to allow applications and branding to be done.

Idris Elba in Salone

Sierra Leone received the Hollywood actor, musician and writer, Idris Elba in December 2019. Many expected his visit to be entertainment-led, but the focus was on tourism. Elba and the Government of Sierra Leone are working on plans to transform Bonthe Island into a touristic city. Elba’s father was born in Sierra Leone before he traveled to the UK where Idris was born. On his return to Sierra Leone for the first time, he was honoured with a Diplomatic Passport by the President Bio.

Awards

Few award ceremonies were held in 2019. Notably, the All Walks of Life (AWOL), the diaspora based Sierra Leone Entertainment Awards (SLEA), the Faces of the North Entertainment Awards (FaNEA), and the National Entertainment Awards (NEA) were all held in 2019. In absence were the usual New Skool Awards and the SLeDU National Music Awards.

However, the National Entertainment Awards (NEA) was the biggest entertainment award ceremony that has been built on solid foundation of professionalism and quality. Notwithstanding, the 2019 NEA was marred by backlashes and criticisms on the grounds that many unpopular acts were announced as winners, many calling the process flawed and compromised. But the organisers (Lake Productions) insisted that the winners were chosen through public votes.

Digital Markets and Social Media

Digital marketing and and social media platforms have become the real deal for contemporary entertainment across the world. Musicians the world over make huge cash from their online activities like, sales, streams and downloads. CDs are gradually becoming obsolete, and with piracy on the increase, having products commercialised on digital markets and building big social media followings, is one of several to earn returns; platforms like YouTube, Netflix and more are paying huge sums for streaming, sales and downloads.

One important place our stars fail to pay attention is the social media. It is very important for celebrities to build big online presence to market their brands and build networks across. These platforms have not been well utilised in Sierra Leone, with no Sierra Leonean based celebrity with over one million followers on social, when their counterparts are amassing tens of millions of followers and getting hundreds of millions of online streaming from their products.

Failing to properly harness digital marketing and social media presence has continued to render our stars in poverty. The fate was no difference in 2019, when our stars remained very unpopular on social media, and are not attracting endorsement deals or contracts to perform abroad.

When will Sierra Leonean stars start smiling at the banks, to collect cash from a boom on digital sales, downloads and online streaming?

2020 Resolutions

The industry woke up to a new year (2020) with high hopes. New event dates have been advertised for the early months of the year. Boss LAJ has just had a successful event at the Siaka Stevens Stadium on the 10th of January. The most anticipated reality TV show – Big Sister Salone has already conducted its auditions and the show is expected to start between March and April. However, there is no idea about policies and reforms that will promote this vital industry. This should be a wonderful beginning for the New Year and form part of a lasting resolution.

By IBRAHIM SORIOUS SAMURA

Note, this article was written in January 2020 for SierraEye Magazine, and published in March 2020.