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Elanda

from Eboka by Bayaka

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Elanda songs are very distinctive. The girls sing yodel phrases and the boys tend to make rhythmic grunts and deep breathing sounds. Everyone claps, there is no other percussion. They form a circle and hop up and down in place while each individual takes a turn to dance a brief solo in the center. The dance has two phases: in the first, the solo turn rotates in sequence (clockwise or counterclockwise); in the second phase, the person dancing the solo selects who is to follow by dancing up to him or her. The dance moves quickly and it is considered bad form to miss one’s turn, but it does happen and takes only a momentary distraction. Much flirting goes on during elanda, and illicit rendezvous are always being arranged. Some of my baAka informants have referred to elanda as “that dance from the savanna” and I believed them until I came across the 1946 elanda recording from a good deal farther south, and farther away from any savannas. Now I am not so sure.There have been periods at Yandoumbé when elanda was very popular, with even two going on at the same time in different parts of the village. I had assumed elanda was one of the more vigorous music traditions of the baAka, in no danger of disappearing soon. But more recently, in light of the popularity among teenagers of dancing to soukous music (a popular music style from DR Congo that is also the rage in Congo Brazaville and the Central African Republic), I have begun to see things differently. Teenagers are always most open to outside cultural influences and may even crave change. They are curious about the world beyond their own community, and want to be part of it. And so it is only to be expected that given the opportunity, baAka teenagers want to dance to “new” music played on cassette radios. It is possible that with the rise of the boom box, elanda will fall into neglect, even eventual extinction. In the present selection, from 1986, a small group of teenagers and children danced elanda in the evening.

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from Eboka, released October 5, 2019
Bayaka

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Sound Reporters Amsterdam, Netherlands

Sound Reporters let you listen to the sonic world and the musics of humans and other sentient beings. It goes beyond the definitions of music of the classic and popular genres and their schools. Sound Reporters feels akin to the sound expressions of the indigenous peoples and the sounds of natural phenomena.
The Sound Reporters Bandcamp channel is run by Maxim Chapochnikov and Fred Gales. ... more

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