Jail Time Records has turned New Bell prison in Douala, Cameroon, into an unlikely music hub, with the New Bell prison record label helping inmates record songs and make music videos from behind bars. The prison, known for its harsh conditions, has become home to a studio that has made some prisoners local stars and drawn attention far beyond Cameroon.
The facility operates almost like a small city. Inmates serve as messengers, other prisoners help guards keep order, and a market inside the prison sells items such as fried cassava and beignet pastries. Against that backdrop, the music project has become one of the clearest signs of how prisoners have carved out space for creativity inside a difficult system. One inmate, Empereur, has pulled in 24,000 YouTube views with a video shot entirely in prison.
Steve Happi, a former inmate who helped found Jail Time Records with Italian artist Dione Roach, described the project to the BBC’s Talking Movies as a way for prisoners to be heard. He said it offers resistance, friendship and love, and helps inmates stop thinking only about the walls around them. The studio itself is basic: a small recording booth attached to a room with a single computer, but it has produced material that has reached listeners in South Africa, the United States and Argentina. Earlier this year, the label even staged a large concert in the prison courtyard.
