The Gambia’s biggest multicultural band has announced it is disbanding, months after it has been engulfed in an internal conflict that showed no sign of abating. 

The founding members, JoeHero and his wife, Nina have now come forward with a statement confirming that The Roots Bongo Band is officially over. 

They wrote: “After having played with The Roots Bongo Band for the past two years, we have decided to continue without the rest of the members. The band, who had released their debut album Leaders of Tomorrow, had been playing promotional shows all around the Kombo area for the past year, and has had appearances in most Gambian entertainment shows, such as Fatu Show, African Mix and Banjul Night Live on GRTS. 

“We have played with the band for many years, and we have done everything that we could; yet we have never had any support by the other members. We recorded the debut album in London, and we brought it back to Gambia for the band. We solely financed the entire album, without any sponsorship or input from the other members! We had copies printed, a promotional tour, marketing and advertising etc., all financed by us, and we never asked for anything in return but loyalty to the band. Every band member received their own instrument to play with, plus travel costs and meals, yet they were unable to take their careers seriously.” 

JoeHero and Nina added: “After all, the band was not ours; we were a part of it just as every other member. Our kindness was definitely abused. The fact that we had sacrificed our plans and came to Gambia to play with the band meant nothing to them, and instead of being happy about the opportunity presented to them, they were jealous and tried to quietly destroy everything that we build up for them.” 

Referring to their plans as a new duo, the statement continued: “We are now going solo. Music is our life, there is nothing else we want to do, and so we respect it and work hard for it. We cannot afford other people’s bad behaviour to hold us back. The only thing we regret is that some of the members got the chance to promote their own names on our expense, and now we can see that this was their aim all along. It is disappointing and frustrating, but we live and learn! 

“We are working on our debut album Voice to Follow, which will be a double album. That means we will release the original album on our new name JoeHero & Nina and we will include another album with brand new tracks, making it a double album for the price of one!” 

In the meantime, JoeHero and Nina are busy in the studio finishing up the production of their new tracks, as well as working on several collaborations with other Gambian artists like Melody B.