Sabina

Sabina - African local music project video 2 from SETH CHASE on Vimeo.

Motosi is a rural farmer, to be exact he's a subsistence farmer. He's among the poorest in the world. I found him a year ago when shooting a project to get soccer balls distributed to children in Burundi. My buddy Brandon spotted him jamming just off the road in front of a hut. A couple months back I went to his house with my buddy Adam, and we filmed him as he played a few songs for us. His homemade guitar was ruined during rainy season, and Adam payed to get it fixed at a local sort of fix it guy, but it sounded so bad we let him use a guitar that was donated to me. So, Motosi is playing my guitar and Singing, and his buddy is doing percussion on Motosi's homemade guitar. After the song ends I pan around Motosi showing a bit of his house, and plot. You can see, Adam sitting on a camera box, while about 50 burundians from the village look on, a few soldiers are hiding among the villagers as well. This song is called Sabina. Sabina is the name of a woman he is in love with. He sings the song in Swahili, French, and Kirundi. I can only understand his French portion, but I imagine his Swahili and Kirundi portions are the same.

He basically says that he Loves Sabina, but Sabina just keeps asking for money. Money to feed the kids, money to buy a house, money for fish, money for wood to make a fire. And all this asking for money frustrates him. He goes on to say that beautiful women love money. He warns friends from London, and America, and says "listen up, beautiful women love money, I think it's like that all the time." He keeps repeating these themes.

I found it interesting because Sabina seems to ask for money for responsible practical things. I know it's written but one of the poorest in the world, so it likely gets tiring of always being asked for money when you don't have any money, and you barely have enough money to live. I thought motosi had a raw sound, sort of Bob Dillonesque, but better, with less profound lyrics.