S.E. Rogie

Since leaving Sierra Leone in the early 1970’s, Rogie lived both in the USA and the UK, returning only much later to the country of his birth to play a series of benefit concerts for people displaced by the political turmoil of 1993. By the time of his homecoming his fame has spread far beyond the boundaries of West Africa.

His last recording Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana was released in May 1994 by Real World Records. It has since become a classic of world music.

Rogie was born in 1926 and began performing early, while supporting himself as a tailor. In the 1960s, he became a professional musician, singing in four languages. His hits include ‘Koneh Pehlawo’, ‘Go Easy with Me’ and ‘My Lovely Elizabeth’. He formed a band called The Morningstars in 1965, then travelled in Liberia and the United States. In the US, he performed at elementary and high schools across California, and received awards from the US Congress and Senate, the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, California. He lived in London from 1988.

S.E Rogie died on 4 July 1994, aged sixty-eight.