Yeyi from Eboka by Bayaka

On their way into the forest, baAka women often sing. They sing for the sheer joy of it, happy to be setting off into this cool shady world. They may only be on a short excursion to fetch water in the nearby stream, or to bathe, or to leave manioc tubers in the stream for soaking (manioc must be peeled and then soaked in water for three days to leach out its poisonous prussic acid content). In the selection presented here they are setting off for a day of foraging and will not return to camp until afternoon. In any case, they fill the air with melody, sung in the most lovely clear voices on this planet. This is the most occasional of musics, and the women may sing only brief snatches of
melody between longer bouts of talking as they walk along. Now and then, however, there is a sustained performance lasting several minutes. The songs or melodies the women sing on these excursions come from various baAka music forms - yeyi, boyobi, enyomo, ejengi - usually from whichever type of music is the most current. In this selection from 1994 four or five women sing a
yeyi song as they set off from their forest camp. Most extraordinary about these musical moments is the effect of the forest on the singing voices. The acoustics of the forest act like a giant open-ended cathedral, and notes hang in the air and melt away. At times I have even heard a kind of deep overtone arise from the interaction of the singing voices and the trees, as if the air itself had come alive and hummed with the subtle action of the forest’s pedal note.

Tracklist

1.	Yeyi	4:25

Credits

from Eboka, released October 5, 2019
baAka women

License