What exactly is Davalgee?

Davalgee is simply "a delightful musical phenomenon that hit Sierra Leone from 1980 to 1986." During those years, The Davalgees were the total representation of the power of music and Sierra Leonean's love for entertainment. The Davalgees were a dance group, a band, and a dance troop that travelled all through Sierra Leone entertaining and bring happiness to the youth of that era.

How did you come up with the name Davalgee?

David Bangura, Alan Smith, and Rogee Rogers (the original members) got together one Saturday morning to give a name to a spontaneous dance routine that Alan and David had performed at a party the night before. We played around with our first names in various combinations until we finally settled on DAV from David, AL from Alan, and GIE from Rogee. At that time, Rogee's name was spelled ROGIE. So we named the group "The Davalgie Three." Later on when Rogie changed his name to Rogee, we changed the "GIE" to "GEE."

Why did Rogee change his name from Rogie to Rogee?

Actually, he did not change his name; the newspapers did. After one of our first big shows around 1981, the newspapers mistakenly printed his name as ROGEE. He really liked the new spelling, so he kept it.

Do you plan on going back to Sierra Leone and perform?

We have not quite discussed that idea, but the possibility is there. If it happens, you will most definitely hear about it.

You had very neat costumes. How did you come up with costume ideas?

We all came up with ideas for our costumes. At our meetings, we would actually make sketches until we decided on a particular look. The extra stuff that were on most of our customer where sewn in by members of the group.

Your dance choreography was a total killer. How did you come up with those great moves?

Originally Rogee was our lead choreographer, but as time went on, we all became master choreographers of the Davalgee moves. As hard and perfect as the Davalgee routines may have seemed, we had a set number of routines that we liked to use over and over in most of our performances. Obviously, we also copied moves from the popular Western artists at that time.

Over the years, many people have claimed to be Davalgee members. Who are the genuine Davalgees?

The original three are Alan Smith, David Bangura, and Rogee Rogers. The secondary three are Derek Bangura, Richmond "Ritchie" Garrick, and Dwight Short. Ancillary members are Donald Kaye, David & Henry Showers (Band Trumpeters), Shaway Deen (Band Saxophonist), Mohamed Davalgee (the popular Tailor), Mohamed Sesay (Band Bass Player), and Busairu Savage (Manager).

Who are the Davalgee sisters?

The Davalgee sisters are Emrica Kargbo (Blell), Annie Metziger, Claudia Solomon, Mariama Rahim, Junova (Ellis), Ester Siafa, Valerie James, and JuJu (Juliane, the kid).

Who was the little Davalgee kid?

That was JuJu (Juliane, the sister of Zainab Bundu). Between costume changes or when things slowed down during a performance, and in general, JuJu was the Davalgee sister who kept the Davalgee hype and tradition of great performance alive.

If I want to do business with Davalgee, who do I contact?

Contact Davalgee for all business issues. If you do business with any brother, you must have the proper licensing in writing. Davalgee is the intellectual property of all The Davalgee Brothers. We strongly discourage using the Davalgee name for any purpose without proper licensing in written form from the Davalgee leadership.

How did Davalgee break up?

Davalgee never broke up, per se. As we all traveled out of the country one by one to foreign places, the group was left open, but never broken up. Davalgee is part of all of us, in everything we do, all the time regardless of what country we live in.

Who were the International big names that Davalgee performed with?

Many local promoters realized that they needed a local Sierra Leonean group to break in the crowd when they brought international stars to the country. Naturally, Davalgee was the favorite of these promoters. Hence, we performed with Osibisa, the late "Ticumse," Burning Spear, Asward, Isaac Hays, Paris Ludo Casino Caberet and Miatta Fambuleh. The DAVALGEES also put up a performance for Joe Jackson (Michael Jackson's dad).