Ayuune Sulley

Ayuune Ayirizeme Suley, often going by the shorter name Ayuune Suley and is known by his fans simply as Sule. He was born on March 16, 1979 to a popular business man called Baba Ayirizeme and a pito brewer Asibi at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and bred at Roman Hill, a Kumasi suburb. He attended St. Peters Primary School. Sule discovered his musical talent at his mother's pito bar (pito is a traditional fermented millet beer from Northern Ghana) when he was five years old. His mother used to host traditional musicians at her bar to entertain her customers. She used to invite kologo musicians and anytime they were around little Sule stayed close to them and wouldn't want to be distracted at all. Everytime the musicians went for refreshments he took advantage and played their instruments, which got his mother shouting at him but he wouldn't listen. Sule’s fascination for the kologo grew so strong that he set out to construct his own instrument to help him champion his path and ever since he got that instrument, his family did not have any peace of mind. He could wake up at midnight to play and he even dropped out of school since all his attention was on the kologo. His parents then decided to send him to their home town of Zuarungu Kantia, one of the towns near Bolgatanga in the upper East region of Ghana. They hoped his attention might be redirected back to school but it was rather the right place for him to develop and exhibit his God given talent instead. After attending school for about a year, he dropped out completely and never went back again. He faced so many challenges that he was even being denied food, but none of those distracted his attention from the kologo. He later became a cowboy and anytime he walked out the cattle to eat, he took time to rehearse. Sule continued like this for about four years and became matured in knowing how to blend the traditional music with the kologo. He studied the people with their different cultural values as well, so his way of music started catching people’s attention. He gained invitations at social gatherings, parties, traditional weddings, funerals and invitations to entertain farmers on their fields where he was paid with guinea fowls or groundnuts. At age of thirteen, he realized that he was on his way to stardom. A brother of him saw his talent and recorded him with a four battery cassette tape recorder. The song was “Bahe Te Mmega Behe Loo” (let me get it by myself). Adimazangeya, Franko, Atia Mba and Dickson were the reigning kologo stars at that time. They were the mentor to the then up and coming talents. One day he heard his song been played on URA Radio, back then the only radio station in the whole Bolgatanga region. He jubilated and called all his friends and neighbors around to listen. In the same recording set up, he recorded another single titled “Yene Mmi Badoma”. He was now rubbing shoulders with the local stars through his new songs and his fame grew. When returning to Kumasi his fame had already arrived and the big Frafra community welcomed him as a kologo star. Since 2008 Ayuune Sule has joined King Ayisoba as sinyaka player in his band for more than 200 concerts all over Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, often getting the opportunity to play a short solo kologo warm up set and making new fans. In 2015 Ayuune Sule had his first release in Europe; the 7” single called “What A Man Can Do, A Woman Can Do More Better” (MR 12). On 23 March 2018 his new album “We Have One Destiny” will appear on Makkum Records and Rebel Up Records.