[1] The music was originally used in witchcraft ceremonies, but later it turned into a popular religious processional style played during Ramadan.
[2] In its folk form, the music is played by blowing on bamboo cane flutes and on metal pipes -often repurposed auto parts.
During the Sierra Leone Civil War, Ahmed Janka Nabay became the first musician to record Bubu music.
[3] With songs like "Sabanoh" (We Own Here), Nabay asserted what he established as the underlying message of Bubu—peace, good governance and the empowerment of women or "ponchus".
Most of his music emphasized finding one’s inner soul or “squang”, and sharing love or “flampus en elangus bubu” - spreading the fire of your heart.