We Have One Destiny

Ayuune Sule discovered his passion for playing the kologo — a two-stringed lute — learning from the musicians who would stop for pito (fermented millet beer) at his mother's bar in Kumasi, Ghana's second city and capital of the Ashanti region. Growing up, Sule honed his talent by playing at the weddings, birthdays and funerals of the local Frafra people, and eventually joined the band of Ghana's biggest kologo star, King Ayisoba. Its various members, such as Guy One, have made the kologo, and the style of music named after it, increasingly popular outside its native West Africa. Sule's first solo album draws influence from modern, uptempo African styles such as azonto and hip-life, combining them cleverly with the more soulful, traditional sound that Ghana is famous for. This is well exemplified on the entrancing ‘Senyaane’ featuring just his voice and the sinyaka — a dried gourd filled with hard berries that is thrown up high and shaken like maracas. His 2015 female-empowerment anthem ‘What a Man Can Do a Woman Can Do More Better’, originally recorded as a single for a gender equality charity, is just one highlight on an album full of interesting gems.