Umoja i-nity – Get Away

At the beginning of the 1980s, Fifi Yawson and some other members of the Ghanaian band, Gem Movement, moved to the city of Hanover in Germany. There they met the Trinidadian drummer Martin James who had previously played with the 20th Century Steelband in England for several years.

Thanks to his work as a studio musician, Martin was well connected in the Hanoverian music scene where he met sound engineer Thomas Rugel during a recording session. Together with the Ghanaians Fifi Yawson, Francis Dansei, Sam Asante and Tom Blay they formed the group Umoja i-nity. Other members of the band were Christine Clinton and Nyemah George Williams (who both had previously worked with Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba) as well as Ingo Erlhoff and Jochen Rose from Germany.

In autumn 1982, Thomas Rugel recorded the band’s debut album, a mixture of afrobeat, funk, disco and Caribbean influences, at the UTV Studio in Hanover. In April 1983 the 12″ Feel The Groove / Foxy Source Lady appeared on the local GeeBeeDee label which was more specialized in Pop music and ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’.

Despite a tour of Germany and some TV appearances in spring 1983 the band remained an insider’s tip, and the sales of the first maxi were rather poor.

Negotiations with the Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon record companies to release the album on a major record label failed. After the lack of success, the band dissolved shortly afterwards and the master tapes of the unreleased LP disappeared in Thomas Rugel’s archive – until some of them see the light of day on Cree Records for the first time!