Celebration · Love song · 1976 · Sub-Saharan Africa
Sweet Mother
A happy song from 1976 that thanks mothers, sung in Nigerian Pidgin English. It became one of the best-loved songs in Africa.
- Words
- Prince Nico Mbarga
- Music
- Prince Nico Mbarga
- Culture
- Nigerian and Cameroonian highlife
- Language
- Nigerian Pidgin
- Place
- Onitsha, Nigeria (where it was released)
- Date
- demo turned down in 1974; released December 1976
- Type
- Celebration · Love song
- The words
- In copyright (a song by Prince Nico Mbarga and Rocafil Jazz, released 1976)
The story
"Sweet Mother" is a highlife song by the Cameroonian and Nigerian singer Prince Nico Mbarga and his band Rocafil Jazz. Its demo tape was turned down by EMI in 1974, which cited the song's "childish appeal", and it was later rejected by Decca and Philips Records too. It was finally released in December 1976 by Rogers All Stars, a Nigerian recording company based in Onitsha. The song is sung in Nigerian Pidgin English; its music is West African highlife, with guitar finger-picking in the style of Congolese soukous.
"Sweet Mother" became one of the most popular hits in Africa, selling between 3 and 13 million copies, and it is sometimes called "Africa's anthem". In 2004 the readers and listeners of the BBC voted it Africa's favourite song, ahead of Brenda Fassie's "Vuli Ndlela", Fela Kuti's "Lady", Franco's "Mario" and Miriam Makeba's version of "Malaika".
What it says
A celebration of motherhood: a song of love and thanks to one's mother, warm and joyful in mood.
The words
The words of this song are still in copyright, so the Institute does not print them itself: Genius shows them below, under its own licence.
Genius shows the lyrics in its own frame, under its own licence: nothing loads from Genius until you press a button. The song on Genius.
Listen
On YouTube, from the channel Prince Nico Mbarga - Topic. Pressing play loads YouTube’s player. Watch on YouTube
People, places and events
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Sweet Mother", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Mother
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Sweet Mother. In Songs in History. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/sweet-mother
- MLA
- “Sweet Mother.” Songs in History, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/sweet-mother. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Sweet Mother.” Songs in History. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/sweet-mother.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Sweet Mother’, Songs in History. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/songs/sweet-mother (Accessed: ).