Sèna & Ensemble Azɔ’s Alèkè Gbè honors Beninese grandmothers at 88 bpm
Alèkè Gbè appears on AFRIKANA under the full title Alèkè Gbè, Heartfelt Tribute to Beninese Grandmothers | Benin Fon Traditional Music and is set at 88 beats per minute.
The piece is sung in Fon (Fongbé) and presented as a homage to grandmothers from southern Benin. Those anchors, language, tempo and tribute, shape what listeners can confirm immediately.
Words, place and the stated theme
The vocals are delivered in Fon. The published presentation locates the song in the Fon cultural area of southern Benin and frames its subject as gratitude, memory and family continuity aimed at grandmothers.
That framing appears in the track title and description on AFRIKANA and is the clearest guide to the song’s social address. Listeners who understand Fon will find the linguistic centre of the piece; those who do not can still register the choir’s responses and the repeated references to elders in the presentation.
Arrangement: palm-wine guitar, choir and small hand percussion
The arrangement is presented as palm-wine acoustic. Lead vocals are supported by a small choir working in call-and-response, and the track lists palm-wine style acoustic guitar as a principal texture.
Named percussion elements include calabash, soft frame drums and light shakers. The description calls the arrangement intimate and organic, and the instrumentation listed matches that portrait: restrained acoustic guitar, a compact vocal ensemble and a light hand percussion palette.
At 88 bpm the pulse sits in a measured range. The mood tags attached to the piece include African Calm and Recovery, and the vocal architecture plus the modest percussion lend themselves to domestic or village performance contexts, as the presentation suggests.
Credits that appear and what remains unspecified
The recording is credited to Sèna & Ensemble Azɔ and the AFRIKANA video carries the full tribute title quoted above. Those are the named authors and the visible publication vehicle.
No producer, recording studio or engineer is named in the presentation. Because those production credits are not listed, it is not possible from the available record to identify who recorded, mixed or produced the session.
A listener can therefore rely on what is named: Fon language, the 88 bpm tempo, the palm-wine guitar texture, a call-and-response choir and the small hand percussion set. Beyond those elements, authorship and technical credits remain unspecified.
The AFRIKANA video edition supplies the title and tags, and the track is available through the AFRIKANA mobile app where listeners can check the tempo and examine the phrasing up close.