Self-Love in Sampa the Great’s The Return
Sampa Tembo, known as Sampa The Great, is an artist who grew up in Zambia before moving to America for school, and then Australia to begin her career. The Return speaks loudly of the self-love and pride Sampa has found in being a black woman, inspired by her personal struggles with racism and sexism in the music industry. When she was growing up in Zambia, she was told she couldn’t join her elementary school’s rap group “‘cause [she] was a girl,” which has been a theme following her through her life, and in America and Australia as well (Holway).
Growing up in Zambia, close to roots of the Bemba tribe from which her mother descends, Sampa shares this through her music. The first track “Mwana'' on The Return begins the album with lyrics in Bemba: “mwana wandi ikala panshi ndi naiwe,” which translates to: “I’m with you, sit down, I’m always with you, you don’t have to search for an element that is within yourself” (Fulton). In an interview, Sampa stated she started the album this way to reflect “Fire storytelling, where everybody comes together and we sit down and are like, ‘welcome, welcome, welcome into my home,’ now let’s tell a story about what we are about to discover” (Fulton).
This album is the first she performed in Zambia after becoming famous in Australia, and in it she tackles the notion of what home means. In an article in The Guardian, Sampa recounts that when she returned to Zambia, she describes how she had developed an accent when she spoke in Bemba, and through this she “became the diaspora, which was a perspective I had sympathized with but didn’t think I’d have myself” (Hennesy). This internal struggle is reflected in the song “Mwana,” where Sampa raps: “I guess I found my fortune / I don’t need home to feel important / But I need a feeling of peace / I’m not broken / Searching but soft spoken / Leaning up to the ether / Wonder if ancestors been living / On through my ugh.” This shows Sampa’s struggle with gaining fame, but lacking her sense of home and family. She ends the stanza with “through my ugh” and then begins the next with “my DNA,” which brings up a contrast between a view of ancestral cultural lineage and Western scientific definitions of lineage. However, despite the melancholy of these lyrics, in an interview Sampa states she has developed an ability to “create home within myself. When I'm not at home, I'm still home,” and not let a place define how she feels (Balram).
One of the most impressive parts of this album is the sound of the album as a whole. At 19 tracks, it is long but never once gets boring. The sound of every song is super diverse. There is a mix of rap, singing, chants, and even several songs that are simply spoken-word, in the form of phone calls. Some songs have intense instrumentals, and some are more subdued. “Final Form” has loud, jazzy, and in-you-face instrumentals, while the title track “The Return” begins with xylophone.
Sampa said the greatest advice she had ever received was from her father and it was “‘keep your uniqueness,’” a message she shares with her listeners through her focus on Black power and self-love, stating “I love myself and that’s who it’s truly about in her song The Grass is always Greener (Holway). In Heaven, she raps “Inner peace be the new success”, rejecting the notion that wealth and fame define a music artist. In Final Form, she repeats the line “Great state I’m in/ No states I’m in/ In my final form/ In my melanin”, embracing her blackness openly. In Any Day, she states, “love myself if you degrade it” showing that she isn’t going to take anyone’s attempts to bring her down...she will stand strong against it all. Through all these messages, she inspires others, especially black women and girls, to find their own strength.
Sampa’s Website: https://www.sampathegreat.com
Stream/Buy The Return: https://sampathegreat.lnk.to/thereturnAP
Sources and more reading:
Balram, Dhruva. “Sampa the Great Finds Her Place”. NPR. September 11, 2019.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/11/759466666/sampa-the-great-finds-her-place
Fulton, Nick. “Sampa the Great explores the meaning of home in her new album ‘The
Return’”. I-D Vice. September 13, 2019.
https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/8xw8a4/sampa-the-great-explores-the-mean
ing-of-home-on-her-new-album-the-return
Hennessy, Kate. “Sampa the Great: I went back to Zambia and people said, ‘You’re
different’”. The Guardian. September 9, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/09/sampa-the-great-sampa-tembo-the-return-zambia-afrobeat
Holway, Hannah. “Meet Sampa the Great: the rapper is returning to her roots with a
long-awaited debut album”. Wonderland Magazine. September 12, 2021. https://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2019/09/12/sampa-the-great-interview/