‘TEJAJLU’

Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe: Gone but Not Forgotten. RIP!

Posted December 3, 2022

By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe is gone.

The great Tejajlu left us on November 26, 2022, to be with the Ancestors.

Gone but not forgotten, my friend and your music lives on and continues to inspire us your people.

Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe was “Tejajlu”- translation - up and coming kids/persons, an endearing reference to the historic singing group he founded and led for decades as he built name recognition and a committed fanbase that devoured his music in every corner of the Klao universe.

Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe was the King of Klao folk music and culture, a guy who proudly contributed immensely in his own way to the heritage of his people.

A formidable cultural presence in the Klao-Kru community in Liberia and the diaspora, the raspy voice singer with a dazzling stage presence was a politically progressive artist who brought lightning comfort and meaning to his music and taught us to embrace our culture even when we tried to abandon those traits that made us who we are today.
Tejajlu’s music was high on energy, high on drums, folksy, and danceable.

Tejajlu’s music was also about love, hate, death, drama, redemption, social, and economic justice, and political equality, important in a country such as Liberia where political leaders famously neglect and exploit their own people for their selfish interests.

Anthony Nagbe's music continues to have a ubiquitous presence in Klao gatherings – at family events, graduations, weddings, wake keepings and funerals, football games, meetings, and other functions.

Even though he was famous for his passionate rendition of the songs that made him a household name in Klao communities, Tony Nagbe, as he was known in some quarters, was a quiet and shy guy, and the coolest and calmest person to be around. When he wasn’t performing, you wouldn’t know he was in the building because he was a very quiet man.

As the most popular group among Klao musical groups, Tejajlu’s singing style, and drumming are copied and imitated without any authorization or royalty payments, and his music has been sampled and remixed to the point that those that use his materials are too lazy intellectually to write their own songs and lazy to have their own original content.

I came across Tejajlu’s music in Clara Town in the late 1960s when I used to visit my mother who had just moved there from New Kru Town.

As an up-and-coming kid who was curious about events and the gathering of people in a vibrant city like Clara Town with such incredible day life and nightlife combined with an incredible group of fun-loving people before the city was callously destroyed by the Liberian government in the early 1970s, I found my young self in a crowd whenever I visited Clara Town listening to ‘DAR-YEA’ and ‘Experience Sayon Nagbe’s music, which later became a major part of my musical collections.

‘Basino’ his other nickname, was an avid soccer fan and player.

In Clara Town, Basino played #5 for Nyankoon United, and #3, as a defender for St. Joseph Warriors.

In metro Atlanta in 1989, I finally met the great Tejajlu Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe whose music I admiringly listened to as a kid in Clara Town and New Kru Town.

Tejajlu Tony Nagbe, the entertainer was always at his craft whenever he was asked to perform for any event which he did singularly since his musical group wasn’t in America but in Liberia awaiting his arrival – one day.

About a year ago in 2021, the legend decided to finally go home to join his kids and his musical group. Unfortunately, he left the United States, not as the vibrant Tony Nagbe we all knew over the years.

His advanced age and recurring health problems slowed him down.

In metro Atlanta, Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe was very close to his cousin Boniface Sarwieh, another Klao gentleman who embraced the singer and shared living quarters with him for over a decade.

Anthony ‘Experience’ Sayon Nagbe and I were close friends until he left our city, first for Minnesota, Charlotte, North Carolina, and later Liberia.

He is survived by his daughter Anthoinette Nagbe, and a son.

He was 80 years old.

May his soul rest in peace.

dorbioh@hotmail.com

www.theliberiandialogue.org