The term ‘Pygmy’ has been used by anthropologists (and more generally by speakers of European languages) to denote the indigenous hunter-gatherers of the Central African rainforest. However it is a problematic term in that it has often been used in a derogatory sense which reflects the socially oppressive circumstances under which some forest people still live. These people often refer to themselves in their own languages as ‘forest people’ or ‘children of the forest’. They include the Baka of Cameroon, the Ba(Aka) of the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo, the Ba(Ngombe) of the Republic of the Congo, the Ba(Mbuti) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the (Ba)Gyeli of Gabon, and several sub-groups and peripheral groups, such as those referred to as ‘Pygmoids’ living in Rwanda and Burundi. They number in all about 170,000 (though census data collection among Pygmies is obviously difficult to conduct and more difficult to verify). Musical styles and lifestyles among these groups vary across regions and change over time. African Pygmies have traditionally lived in semi-nomadic hunting camps, exchanging forest goods with neighbouring farmers in patron-client relationships, and sometimes working on their neighbours' farms. Pygmies across equatorial Africa are increasingly farming their own plots in the forest, which in some ways allows them more independence.
The most striking features of Pygmy music include the often wordless yodelling that results in disjunct melodies, usually with descending contours (ex. 1), and densely textured multi-part singing. The texture is built up from continuously varied repetition of a short cyclical pattern, with different voices entering informally and filling out the texture with parallel melodies, variations and ostinati. Pentatonic or sub-pentatonic forms are most common and harmonies are mainly based on 4ths and 5ths, with an occasional parallel 2nd. In many other styles of African music there is often a clear division of the melody between a leader and a chorus; however, in Pygmy singing this division is usually absent or obscured by the high degree of overlap between parts, by the passing around of central melodic figures from one person to another, and by a considerable freedom to improvise solo within the metrical and harmonic constraints of the pattern. Some observers see in this improvised yet structured song style a model for democratic, non-hierarchical social values. This has coincided with a tendency in both scholarly and popular literature to romanticize forest peoples and their musics, often described within ‘Eden-like’ narratives. Though the music of the African Pygmies is primarily vocal, many groups consistently use drums for dance music, along with voices. Drums are sometimes borrowed from non-Pygmy neighbours, for example in the Central African Republic, where some (Ba)Aka use drums of the Mbati during their dances. There are also several solo instruments that can be played during quiet times in the camp; among (Ba)Aka and Baka these can include the ngombi, a three-string harp (or a five-string version borrowed from villagers); the mbiti, a women's musical bow; and the hundewhu, a three-hole disposable bamboo flute.
For further information, see Central African Republic and Congo, Democratic Republic of the.
GEWM, i (‘Musical Life in the Central African Republic’; M. Kisliuk)
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PETER COOKE/MICHELLE KISLIUK