African artists keep traditional music alive

Chouchou and his band are on a quest to revive a rare cultural heritage

Bangui: The jangle of guitars and throb of the bass push the speakers to their limits as Chouchou and his band, Zokela, take the stage at a dance bar in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). Urged on by Chouchou, an audience enlivened by lashings of warm beer gets to its feet and the place starts to rock.

Dancers shake their hips, kick high in the air and leap to the beat of the “motenguene” – an old music and dance style handed down by the Pygmies. Its name translates into “the dance of the caterpillars,” which Pygmies gather for food in ancestral forests in the southwest.

It is one of four such traditions in the CAR, along with the “bird dance” from the north, the “fish dance” of the southeast and the “savannah dance” of central regions. The motenguene is among just a handful of homemade forms which still survive in a local music market swamped by imported sounds.

But for Chouchou and his band, motenguene is more than music. They are on a quest to revive a rare cultural heritage — and help mend a nation scarred by conflict and division.

Dan One, a young rap musician, describes motenguene as “that traditional thing.” “We tend to draw on Western music or on west African music,” he said. “Young people copy other countries but they don’t know how to promote their traditional culture.” Zokela have been trying to revamp motenguene’s image for nearly 30 years.

In their shows, traditional bead necklaces and antelope skins are usually swapped for city-slicker clothes, while the kora — a delicate, long-necked harp lute favoured in much of West Africa — has given way to the electric guitar.

“The crisis that we’re going through today in the Central African Republic is primarily a cultural crisis,” argues Yvon Eka, a promoter in Bangui and motenguene fan. “People in the north don’t have the same culture as those in the centre. Everyone has their own turf and wants to defend it. Unfamiliarity with someone else’s culture breeds mistrust,” he adds.

Yet motenguene music could help “to create bonds among the South, the North, the East and the West,” Eka suggests.”Culture is the identity of a country.” Locally known musicians including RV Texas and Muziki try to revive the popularity of the motenguene by adapting it to today’s tastes, and Zokela and others have toured abroad several times.

And like their peers, the musicians have run up against every conceivable obstacle in their careers.The biggest problem for emerging artists is a desperate lack of resources. To worsen matters, professional musicians are owed copyright fees dating back more than 35 years.