Yelli :: Baka Women

So I've got the delightful problem of having to choose between several very different songs. In fact, I'm pretty sure it'll just get worse and that the darling bottleneck of songs will continue to back up from here to kingdom come. Cuz there's so much sweet music out there! But just knowing that there will be Sundays to come (and Unsundays for the gobbling up of YOUR chosen tunes) is one consolation. OUR BLOG IS SO BOSS! And at least there's no contest which of these songs should get posted first.

Whilst chillin' with my train adventure friends 'tother night, I was smacked in the ears by yet another soul-rending musical discovery. The album is called "Heart of the Forest" and features on site recordings of the Baka people of South-Eastern Cameroon. From what I hear, the Baka (also known as the Pygmies) make music pretty much all the time. They have songs and chants and beats for just about everything. Everything from washing their clothes in the river to storytelling to greeting the day on the morning of a hunt has music to it. As one who who is looking to build a life and community where music is the mortar for the bricks, I'm friggin' fascinated by these people and their music.

This website is helpful: http://www.baka.co.uk/baka/

This clip isn't the version of the Yelli that I heard first (it's the first three tracks on the CD and starts with a single female voice adding to the crickets and other forest sounds), it's still a good example of the music they make. The British guy's voice in the following clip is kinda annoying and pretentious, but the stuff he's saying is cool to know.




If you have the time, DO hunt down the CD or have a good look at the site. Cuz the clip I'm posting is just one tune in the pile of music the Baka make of their lives every day! It's really humbling to acknowledge the fact that much of the world would say these fabulous folks are in need of "civilization". Maybe this is just the raging hippy in me, but I can't think of anything more bad ass or marvelously human than speaking Spirit language and listening to it even when the World is trying to drown it out. I wanna listen and sing enough to learn from them or at least do my part to preserve their way of life and spread it in any way I can.