McAnuff Family And The Ligerians – Africa My Destiny
SoulNurse Records
Text: Volker Barsch
Forget Rome – all roads lead to France! That could be the McAnuff Family motto. Father Winston, active in the reggae business since the 1970s, enjoyed something of a second wind in the 2000s thanks to support from French players such as the Makasound label and multi-instrumentalist Fixi. Together with his son Kush, also known as the bandleader of Uprising Roots, he has more recently appeared regularly on releases and at live events by the Inna de Yard project, coordinated by Makasound successor Chapter Two.
Daughter Nadia, meanwhile, grew up with her mother, first in the Bobo camp in Bull Bay, then in the US, where she spent years involved with the music project Agape before returning to Jamaica and recording a number of promising singles. These included the outstanding Rasta anthem ”Ithiopia”, her first duet with her father Winston.
Her career only really took off, however, when she connected with the Ligerians from Tours, France. They first produced an EP with her, followed by a full album, ”Shelter From the Storm”, released in 2024. During those recording sessions, Winston also happened to drop by the Soul Nurse Studios, resulting in ”Colors”, the second combination single by father and daughter.
So what could have been more obvious than bringing Kush on board and going on tour together as the McAnuff Family? Fortunately, there was enough studio time between shows as well, and the result is now a ten-track family album, produced and mixed by Ligerians mastermind Gabriel Bouillon and mastered by Tippy I.
The album opens with ”Be Careful”, originally by Matthew McAnuff, who was stabbed to death in 2012 during a dispute over a handful of ganja. Many listeners will already know the deeply moving song and its almost prophetic lyrics as the title track of Matthew’s posthumously released debut album, from the Inna de Yard Nyahbinghi version featuring Winston, Var and Derajah, or as an emotional high point of the family’s live shows.
While all three McAnuffs divide the verses evenly among themselves on the opener and sing the chorus in three-part harmony, the remaining tunes each feature only one of them on lead vocals. In keeping with patriarchal tradition, the head of the family claims the lion’s share with five songs. Fair enough, because even at nearly 70, Winston remains a force of nature on the microphone.
The title track is particularly spectacular. Accompanied by African drum rhythms and Highlife-style guitar parts, Winston delivers an Africanised version of Claude McKay’s poem ”If We Must Die”. Equally emotional is the slowed-down ”Lock Up”, in which he reflects on a spell he himself spent in prison for ganja possession.
While ”Bad Times Don’t Last” turns out a little too monotonous, Winston finds his form again on ”Story Comes to Bump”. Over a dynamic riddim driven by a powerful drum-and-bass section, he advises listeners to prepare themselves mentally for the big crash in light of the crises currently unfolding – or, in other words, to develop resilience.
On the album’s closing tune, Winston then covers Freddie McKay’s ”Our Rendezvous”, with the cool call-and-response parts from the keyboards coming across even better than on the original.
That leaves just two songs each for the two children, but both make the most of them. On ”See I Face”, Nadia addresses the many prejudices she has had to overcome as a woman, both within the Rastafari movement and in the music business. On the equally meditative and deeply felt Nyahbinghi hymn ”Glory of Dada”, she pays tribute to Prince Emmanuel, the legendary founder of the Bobo community in which she grew up.
Kush, for his part, delivers the empowering songs ”The Greatest Thing” and ”Troubles Away” in the characteristically laconic, repetitive style familiar from his two albums with Uprising Roots and his contributions to Inna de Yard.
Overall, ”Africa My Destiny” is a rich, harmonious family gathering, impeccably arranged by the Ligerians and simply a pleasure to listen to.
