Palm-wine music (known as maringa in Sierra Leone) is a West African musical genre. It evolved among the Kru people of Liberia, who used Portuguese guitars brought by sailors, Trinidadian calypso and traditional rhythms. Palm-wine was named after a drink, palm wine, made from the naturally fermented sap of the oil palm, which was drunk at gatherings where early African guitarists played.
Palm-wine was first popularized by Ebenezer Calendar & His Maringar Band , who recorded many popular songs in the 1950s and early 1960s. Palm-wine left an influence on many styles, especially soukous and highlife. Though still somewhat popular, palm-wine is no longer as renowned as it once was. Modern musicians include S. E. Rogie, Daniel Amponsah , Abdul T-Jay and Super Combo .
