Album Notes

BARAKA OYURU
The Vision of World Music and South Sudanic

Baraka Lohuta Oyuru, one of the Young Sudanese boy, was born in Southern Sudan on January 1, 1974. Due to a horrific civil war, Baraka’s childhood was stolen from him. By the time he was eleven, his father and other relatives had been killed. He was forced to leave home and no where to go just Lost in between.During his years in rebel area , he saw death on a regular basis and was shot . As the situation worsened year by year, when he was eighteen, he realized the futility of this kid of life. He had to find something better. He fled to Uganda and Kenya where he lived in IFO refugee camps. There he received some education including English. Finally, in June 1995 he was accepted by the United States as a refugee. On June 16, of that year he came directly to Portland, Maine.

Music has been his soul mate ever since he was a small child in the Sudan. He enthusiastically learned traditional, Sudanese African drumming from his father. In those early years, he sang in a Catholic Church choral group that often traveled from place to place around Eastern Equatoria, the region of the Sudan from which he came.

After many years of enduring and fighting in a terrible war, it is a joy to be able to follow his dream as a musician. Yet the pain and sorrow of his experiences are evident in his music. His songs are a cry from the heart of this young Southern Sudanese tribesman. They reflect the loss, dehumanization, and brutality of war. He signs for villages burned, children killed, and families blasted apart. Yet, the overriding message of his music is one of goodness and hope rather than bitterness and despair. The mellow rhythms and harmonies of Afro-Reggae music are filled with the purity of his love and passion for the lost children of the Sudan. His CD’s Run Away Children, Peace in Sudan, and Let it Be for Me capture the experience for a whole generation of children forever on the run. They are the “lost” children of the Sudan, who wander the deserts of the Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya looking for safety and a place to stay. By singing and performing with his band he hope to bring to the wider world the tale of hope, survival, and loneliness that his people of the southern Sudan are enduring. As an advocate for his people, he speaks at schools and colleges about his culture. He also performs to raise money for the Sudanese Self-Help Society, other organizations that raise money for Sudanese refuges and those still suffering, and for Amnesty International.

The Baraka Oyuru Band, a six piece original roots of African-Reggae music band, is based in Central Maine. It has been performing since 2004. That year the Barka Oyuru Band appeared on Channel 6 News in Portland. Barka was interviewed about his goal and message of his music. The band performed two of his songs. During its first year the band performed over 60 shows. Since its inception, the band has performed at the following colleges: Babson College in Massachusetts, Rhode Island College, and in Maine at the Hope Festival at the University of Maine at Orono, Colby, Thomas, and Unity. It also performs at various venues such as clubs, theaters, and festivals including weddings and private parties. As the band has grows, it finds the best elements to express its message of love, peace, and unity of people rarely heard of in the western World