AnkAnum: Song Of The Motherland

It is always interesting to learn about the world views of the parents of a significant artist, and to consider how they may have influenced their offspring's work. Take the filmmaker Spike Lee. His father was the bassist and composer Bill Lee, who in the 1960s worked with Johnny Griffin, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker, and who, under the nom de guerre The Descendants Of Mike And Phoebe, in 1974 released A Spirit Speaks (Strata-East), a politically charged salute to the Lee family's enslaved ancestors.

Less well known is the immediate family history of London's influential reeds and woodwinds player Shabaka Hutchings. Hutchings' father is the Jamaican-born, British-raised dub poet AnkAnum, who in 1985 self-released Song Of The Motherland (Ankh Arts), his only album, under the name Anum Iyapo. AnkAnum was actively involved in the campaigning Grass Roots newspaper which was published by Britain's Black Liberation Front from 1978 to 1986, and he has remained active in community affairs.

On May 25, 2024, to coincide with Afrika Liberation Day, Hutchings released a remastered edition of Song Of The Motherland on his Native Rebel label. It is a remarkable album, full of Rastafarian livity and sociopolitical insights and is thoroughly deserving of reissue. Contemporary comparators include fellow Jamaican dub poets Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ) and Oku Onuora. AnkAnum's lyrics cover the same territory as LKJ's, in particular his book of poetry Inglan Is A Bitch (Race Today), some of which was put to song in 1980 on his album Bass Culture (Island).

But AnkAnum's work stands some distance apart from LKJ's musically. During the late 1970s and 1980s, LKJ recorded with bassist Dennis Bovell's Dub Band, and the sonic soundscape was electric dub reggae. On Song Of The Motherland, which is wholly acoustic, AnkAnum works in the main with four members of the Ras Messengers, a Nyabinghi drum ensemble. They create a hugely empathetic platform for AnkAnum's bouncing, swinging vocal style. LKJ's work is the sound of contemporary Black British clubs such as the since demolished Four Aces in Dalston, East London. AnkAnum's is more suited to a Rastafarian groundation session replete with chalice and enough ganja to rewrite the laws of physics.

To return to where we came in, AnkAnum has, like the late Bill Lee was, clearly been a hugely positive influence on his son's work.