Baka in the Forest - yelli, yodels, forest harp and water drums

[iampeeay01]

I love the music... makes you really feel youre inside the forest of congo. thanks for the video.

[khufu65]

Thse people lives closer to the gods as has been acknowledge thousands of years ago by Pharaoh Pepi I.When the "Pygmy peformed for him the dances of the GODS".

[smilngmonky]

@ChangeTheChannelSong their teeth are sharpened because its better to eat with for those who eat human. Most Pygmies are cannabells and who ever has their teeth sharpened eat humans.

[ChangeTheChannelSong]

Beautiful music and photos! Not to be rude but why are some of the peoples teeth sharpened?

[bakabeyond]

@ChangeTheChannelSong When I asked them the reply was "for the general amusement of life"!

[zerocurrency]

@ChangeTheChannelSong

Some natives in the Amazon also sharpen their teeth. They claim it's for beauty, but it's also adaptive. I have a dentist friend who worked in the Amazon and found the people with sharpened teeth had less tooth decay.

[ChangeTheChannelSong]

@zerocurrency Interesting. Thanks for the info =)

[downy62]

@ChangeTheChannelSong

They sharpen their teeth as a form of beauty like tatoos and body adornment.

[honortheemporer]

@ChangeTheChannelSong cus sharpened teeth are for killing stuff wit your teeth. regular teeth are for killing stuff thats already dead

[phase866]

I freaking LOVE what she does with her voice in the beginning!!!

[buildsbest]

What beautiful music and people too.

[sorourke4]

Jay-Z at 2:30

[Shehasnomorals]

One can verify the statement that pygmy bands are "Patrilineal/Patriarchal" by merely doing a search for "Patrilineal Clans" on the "pygmy info" website. Do not believe the "mangina drones" of Youtube trying to make you think ORIGINAL clans were ran by women. The so-called "gender equality" is a trick of the West being "forced" on Africans.

[hurricane0801]

We made this world sooo wrong =\

What is it to KNOW that there A LOT of ppl starving to death

And other ppl spending millions to send sh!t to space...and bring sh!t from space.

Someone could explain it to me?

It's in this kind of world we want to live in?

"The man is the wolf of the man." ¬¬

[TheSpaceJanitor]

awesome.... thank you

[darkwarlordofvenom]

georgiannmilan they live in the African Jungle not america. You might live westernized life ,but that's they way of life and if you don't like the way they live and that's your problem.

[darkwarlordofvenom]

ooh what a refreshing life

[darkwarlordofvenom]

these photos bring together a wonderful group of images that captures the day and the life of the baka pygmy people.

[georgiannmilan]

Sorry to be so westernized...but all i can think of is..why don't these men get their asses up and build a house..to protect their families! Just like in American...in charge...do nothing!

[petitequinte]

@georgiannmilan They do build houses. Made of leaves. And they seem to protect their families just fine, evidently, or these people wouldn't have survived until the present day. It's not like they need to winterize, y'know? :P Sometimes you gotta look outside the box.

[paapakobe]

Great photos! You can see the reflection of your (photographers) relationship. The music is also great. Do you have video of the harp being played? Is it called ngombi?

[bakabeyond]

@paapakobe Sorry, very little video footage of the ngombi. Its always been at night or I've been too involved in the music to video!

[bakabeyond]

@paapakobe I forgot I'd uploaded one with Mokoloba playing. Put mokoloba in the youtube search

[nikaoam]

I would personally like to THANK the African so-called 'Pygmies' for INVENTING AND GIVING TO THE WORLD THE HARP, THE DRUM, AND THE ART OF SINGING. This world would certainly be an undeniably DULLER place without them.

[RedStormCommingIn]

@nikaoam

The only thing they invented is AIDS and rape.

[nikaoam]

@RedStormCommingIn HIV/AIDS ORIGINATED IN AMERICA, NOT AFRICA, starting in 1978, when white government scientists began to experiment on specimen from the young white homosexual population of New York City as part of the experimental Hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) trials. The trials continued in various American cities up to 1981, when the AIDS epidemic became "official".

[nikaoam]

@RedStormCommingIn The African so-called 'Pygmies' are largely "MATRIARCHAL' in terms of their family orientation and social structures. Since the Baka women tend to have cosiderable influence & are highly respected by the men in their tradtional societies, these people are usually VERY PEACEFUL by nature & only use violence as a last resort, not the first resort like you David Duke-worshipping, "Deliverance" types.

[Shehasnomorals]

@nikaoam

"The African so-called 'Pygmies' are largely "MATRIARCHAL' in terms of their family orientation and social structures."

More "Afrofeminist" nonsense. Allow me to shortfuse your "matriarchal doctrine." The so-called "pygmy" culture is not "matriarchal." In fact, it has been designated as being "patrilineal" by confirmed sources. Their society is patriarchal with male secret ceremonies having great significance (See MOLIMO). They are not "ruled by women" nor are women special.

[FrightofKnight]

@Shehasnomorals

I've noticed there is a concentrated effort to make Africa into another post-feminist America. I can confirm that BAKA culture is "Patrial" and not "Matrial." Why do a small group of matriarchists keep lying and saying that it is? They must think we can't look up the information on our own.

[Shehasnomorals]

@FrightofKnight

Its part of a plan to brainwash the masses, through media, to believe in "matriarchy." If they can claim that "we were all once ruled by women" then you will never reject "modern day" AMERICAN female bigotry. Its an old technique; the old "that's how it used to be so accept it NOW." This is how "slaves" are made. We live under an age-old oligarchy that benefits from selling fantasies to us. "Matriarchy" is one of their major fantasies.

[Shehasnomorals]

*cont*

In many bands polygamy was the norm up until the females began breeding with the villagers and thus began contracting diseases and bringing them back into the camps infecting the men. Thus, now many of the females that began breeding with "outsiders" have contracted STDs and are dying off. Due to this men of the tribe now only have one wife. All of the clans are "PATRILOCAL" and the family goes to the father's residence. Claiming pygmies are "matriarchal" is a NEW AGE LIE.

[QueenIgraine]

That poor kid with the distended belly!

[pansworldnews]

I love this!!!! Really inspiring and magical!! I love forests!! They are our parents. Take care!! Greetings from Nenne in Sweden

[deadlineCrusher]

Awesome music!

[bakabeyond]

music's all from the album "Baka in the Forest" which you can buy from the Baka website. (see video info)

[deadlineCrusher]

Yes, I have purchased the CD already - love it, it´s such great music! Thanks for providing this stuff, it´s very appreciated.

[FasterThanYou321]

@deadlineCrusher - You actually listen to this while in your home? Like, during dinner parties or something?

[paopres]

Fascino fascino fascino, oltre ogni immaginazione!

[CamomileHighClub]

Beautiful music!

great work recording it, and thanks for posting it!

[soukous70]

Superb as always,thanks for sharing it. I do have a request: perhaps you could interview them about their facepaint and jewelry. Much of it may be simply ornamental,but I would love to learn about any meaning behind any of it. For example,the infant getting bathed in that bucket has a brass bracelet,and something around his neck,I'd be surprised if that were just there to look nice.There is very little documentation of such things. Thanks again!

[bakabeyond]

I can't imagine that the brass bracelet has much ancient meaning to the Baka, though maybe to their Bantu neighbours. I don't know about the thing around the neck, but the string across his chest definitely has meaning. String made from a type of grass is used for both protection and for good luck - getting through adversity etc. There will be knots made and small pieces of wood on the string. The women wear them when pregnant and then they are worn by the baby to keep them healthy and strong.

[bakabeyond]

Many things are used for ornamentation. On our first visit the cassettes we used to record their music were shrink wrapped in plastic that had a shiny gold design. The children were soon wearing this as jewelry. The jewelry that has a spiritual meaning tends to be made from forest products - string made from grass or lianas, knotted or woven, rafia and fur, particularly from a river-dwelling squirel-type animal. Look at the singer's necklace in "Jamming with the Baka in the Rainforest"

[soukous70]

Thanks for the quick and informative response! I suppose one could spend almost a lifetime trying to find out the meaning of all the necklaces and whatnot. Funny about the cassette wrapper,manmade material often finds a new use,once it is discarded by us! I have an old porcelain piece that was used on electric power lines as insulation,but the design is visually appealing enough to have been used as a pendant for many generations before it came into my posession!

[adamtabl]

This music is magic and wonderous

Baka Beyond have done the planet a great service in supporting the Baka and their culture and music...

Baka is perhaps the oldest music in the world still being created and so deep and beautiful.

to quote robert thompson

Yelli or Yeyi is "what we could call estactic chanting to vibrate open the forest door to the other world, the door to destiny and fortune...it is the forest icon par excellence...a wordless, textless psalm of ecstacy"

give thanks

[13triki]

Amen to that!

[rotatingwah]

I'm glad I subscribed. Thanks for sharing something so special.