Mbola from Eboka by Bayaka

Mbola is a kind of men’s dancing duel, in which two dancers face one another, each trying to lure the other into a false move. Almost certainly it evolved from a popular game that is played by savanna people such as the Baya. Among villagers (i.e. non-baAka) the game is played primarily by children, especially girls. It involves certain types of foot movements, and the object is to cause one’s opponent to move the wrong foot at the wrong time. The girls recite little ditties, rather in
the manner that children in America or England recite rhymes while playing jump-rope, and look like they are playing a stationary form of hopscotch. The baAka men have modified this game into a full-fledged dancing duel, involving feints and false moves and resulting in an interesting kind of dance. The two contestants enact their duel inside a circle of singers; the loser retires to this circle and the victor chooses a new opponent from the singers’ ranks. Mbola does not have its own repertoire of songs. Instead, it is danced to songs from the men’s dance form So. (The so repertoire, in turn, largely coincides with the repertoire for the women’s dance form lingboku). The present
selection, taken from a mbola session that lasted about two hours, was recorded one night in 1989. Adult men participated, with one of them acting as a kind of dancing referee, wielding a staff and
arbitrating in the inevitable disputes between contestants, when one claimed a “kill” (the baAka’s own word) which the other contested. Some teenage girls watched and sang along.

Tracklist

6.	Mbola	5:08

Credits

from Eboka, released October 5, 2019
Bayaka

License