Music often plays a distinctive role in cultural expression. Along our filming sessions, we’ve given a very special attention to the filming of songs, chants and other musical forms…

Songs in Mpongwe (Gabon)

Following the Akoa Pygmies, nowadays extinct, the Mpongwe people are the first inhabitants of Libreville, on the north bank of the Gabon estuary. The number of Mpongwe speakers has now dropped under 5000. In awareness of their traditional heritage being threatened with extinction, the Mpongwe have created structures for the protection of their language and culture.

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Songs by Mrs Ozuwe

She’s from Gabon, she speaks… and sings in Mpongwe : meet Mrs Ozuwe! Discover her songs, verses and lullabies, filmed by our chief operator Muriel Lutz in 2009.

Song by Henriette
She’s also from Gabon, she’s also signing for us… meet Henriette !

Linguist : Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda
Image & sound : Muriel Lutz
Editing : Caroline Laurent

Music and songs in Akele (Gabon)

Read more about the Akele language

The Akele musical bow, ngongo.

During our filming sessions in Gabon, our crew was granted the opportunity to shoot the performance of an Akele musician playing on a musical bow, known as ngongo. The ngongo, “musical bow”, is used by this population within an initiatory rite called Bwiti, which our local contact here comments on and tells us about its origins and different sequences. We also learn about how the musical bow is made, and how it should be played…

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Songs in Akele

Sorosoro continues its journey through Akele culture : this is a whole new video series, which will take us right through to the end of summer 2010: August will be all about songs – be they ritual and ceremonial chants or simple songs from everyday life.

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A few lullabies

Summer moves on in the sound of music, still with the Akele from Gabon; this next video shows two lullabies sung by a group of women in a little village of the Lake region, near Lambarene.

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Fishing songs
This week we take back for a stroll on the banks of Lake Oguemoue with this short film of Akele women chanting fishing songs.
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Akele songs of the Njembe rite

The Njembe (or Niembe; Ndjembe) is a rite executed exclusively by women, in Gabon. It stands in some way as a response to the male-only Mwiri and Bwiti rites. All three basically consist in two versions of the initiation through which a child becomes an adult. The following video features a group of women singing along some of the songs produced during the Njembe, though these were filmed outside context of the actual rite.

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Akele songs of the Mwiri rite
Final episode of our series on Akele songs… The following video offers a glimpse on songs of the Mwiri ceremony, reserved to men.
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Linguist: Jean-Marie Hombert
Camera and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Translation: Hugues Awanhet
Editing : Caroline Laurent

Music and songs in Baynunk (Senegal)

Read more about the Baynunk language
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Linguist: Sokhna Bao-Diop
Image & sound: Muriel Lutz, assisted by Cheikh Tidiane Sall
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Video created within the ANR Sénélangues project

Songs in Tamasheq, by Moussa Ag Keyna

The Tuareg have had their fair share of struggle for a better recognition of their rights and culture, a conflict that officially ended in Mali 1992 and Niger in 1995.

In the continuity of this struggle, several bands of Tuareg music, also known as Ishumar, were formed. The first one was Tinariwen. These bands take up traditional melodic patterns to which are often added more politically involved lyrics on their lifestyle and the call for youth mobilization.

Toumast was created in the 90s by Moussa Ag Keyna. After years of fighting and resistance, he was severely injured and evacuated to France. With Aminatou Goumar, he recorded a first album and then a second evolving around normal life, love, exile, Tuareg struggle and disillusion.

We’re introducing a few of these songs, sung solo by Moussa Ag Keyna on guitar. The first one, called « The Hawk », is about the nostalgia of life in the desert; the second one, “This girl“, is more of a love song; and the third one, “Hey Brothers!”, is a struggle song for the Tuareg to remember the fight for the recognition of their identity.

More on Toumast: Official website, Facebook, Myspace, Real World Records.

Listen

A few pictures

“Innulamane (The Hawk)”

“Tallyatt Idaght (This girl)”

“Kik ayittma! (Hey Brothers!)”

Tinariwen: interview with Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni

Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni, from Tinariwen, tells us, in Tamasheq, about his relation to his language and how he got to learn Tifinagh script.

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Image & sound: Arnaud Contreras
Translation: Moussa Ag Keyna
Editing: Caroline Laurent