Dione Roach & Steve “Vidou H” Happi
Jail Time Records
Artist Dione Roach and music producer and sound engineer Steve “Vidou H” Happi were awarded the 2024 AFIELD Transitional Justice grant for Jail Time Records, a music label first established within the walls of the Central Prison of Douala, amplifying the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists in Cameroon and Burkina Faso. The initiative shifts societal views on imprisonment and facilitates social rehabilitation.
Jail Time Records is a non profit record label working from inside prisons in Cameroon and Burkina Faso. After succeeding in creating what is the first permanent recording studio inside an African prison in Cameroon in 2018, Jail Time Records has become a collective of musicians, music producers and filmmakers from inside and outside the prison that produce the music of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists. While helping them build careers post-release, among inmates it also fosters non-violent communication, using music to heal and unify while challenging societal perceptions of incarceration.
The project has two scopes: on one side that of scouting and promoting talent while helping social reintegration and changing society’s perception of imprisonment, on the other it works on building non- violent paths for communication, exchange and understanding between inmates that come from extremely different and often opposing backgrounds. Jail Time Records uses music to create bridges between individuals coming from several conflict zones of the country and bordering countries: Cameroon is undergoing a civil war since 2016 between the Anglophone and Francophone parts of the country, and Douala’s prison, being close to the border between the two areas, has hundreds of anglophone people imprisoned for ‘secession’ motifs.
Through music the initiative works with incarcerated soldiers, secessionist or separatists, victims of the war and forced displacement that happened due to the violence in the anglophone region. It encourages partisans and victims of both sides to work together side by side, finding a path for healing, forgiving and building understanding thanks to non-violent communication and the uniting power of music.
Dione Roach is a visual artist based in Douala, Cameroon, whose practice spans painting, video, photography, and community art projects. In 2018, she co-founded Jail Time Records. Dione also leads weekly painting workshops in the prison’s male, female, and underage sectors, using creativity as a means for personal growth and community engagement. Her work focuses on the power of art to give a voice to marginalized groups and foster social transformation through creative practices.
Steve “Vidou H” Happi is a music producer, sound engineer, and activist based in Cameroon. He is the co-founder of Jail Time Records, where he helped to establish the initiative during his incarceration for a year and a half. Jail Time Records’ first album, entirely produced by Steve, was released in November 2022 across digital platforms. The label has gained international recognition, with features in Rolling Stone, Vice, Metal Magazine, and more. Steve’s journey and work have also been covered by The Guardian, BBC, and other major outlets.