大地之歌-中非巴卡矮人族(Pygmy)的複音音樂
BAKA RAINFOREST PEOPLE YODELLERS
矮人族(Pygmy)又譯匹美人，散佈在當今中非一帶的剛果、薩伊、喀麥隆、盧安達、烏干達、中非共和國等國家。
薩伊政府為了木材輸出、作物種植等經濟活動，自30年代開始不斷砍伐雨林，迫使Ituri雨林裡的Efe匹美人(Pygmy)出走成為村落人，僅存四千人（本世紀初尚有七萬五千人）維持著祖先的傳統，在雨林裡生活。
當雨林裡不再有匹美人，巴卡的複音美聲終究只是一種高級音響裡的聽覺享受，聽者不可能知道那頑固的下行音符象徵著人與森林對比的渺小，而嚴謹的輪唱曲代表著自由自在、崇天敬人的巴卡精神，也隨著雨林消失了。
匹美人就是我們一般俗稱的矮黑人，是中非、東非交界處雨林裡的原住民，分為Mbuti, Twa,BaMbenga三大支系。早在亞里士多德時代，古希臘文獻便提到匹美人，稱他們為「來自月亮山腳下樹木與精靈之地小人」。但是在殖民勢力尚未入侵非洲、大肆砍伐森林前，就連非洲黑人都很少看到居住在森林深處的匹美人，以為他們只是個神話。
匹美人的複音音樂：所謂的複音音樂是指根據對位法、在協和的原則下，參差進行兩個或兩個以上的獨立性曲調。匹美人的複音音樂（polyphony）在民族音樂學上十分有名，通常是由女人演唱，據信是匹美女人在雨林裡採集食物時、模仿森林萬籟而來。
民族音樂學者Colin Turnbull注意到匹美人的複音音樂最大特色是每個小節音符一律下行，他認為這是因為匹美人住在雨林裡，仰天看到高大的林冠，自覺渺小所致。此外，匹美人的複音音樂雖多為四四拍，有著嚴格的輪唱曲（round）規則，卻會在出現旋律轉位後，又回到絕對的和諧。Colin Turnbull認為這樣的輪唱曲規則滿足了匹美人性格裡相矛盾的兩個面向，一方面是自由自在的個人主義，另一方面卻又遵奉絕對的社群和諧。匹美人的複音音樂也採取類似岳得爾調（yodel）的唱法，真聲、假嗓交互使用，形成一種波浪的感覺。唱詞多為擬聲字，並無一定意義。
(引自何穎怡小姐主持「世界消遙遊」節目，世界音樂之旅-中非共和國)
Kumuka 1993 -- Efe Pygmy Visit, Zaire (D.R. Congo) Pt. 2 /5
This is a video document, 49 minutes in total length, of the interaction between Western adventure travelers and one of the oldest human societies in central Africa.
In June 1993, a group of tourists (American, Australian, British, Canadian, French) on a commercial overland trek (Kumuka Trans-Africa) visited an Efe pygmy camp named "Bandikoda", on the Laya River, in the eastern Ituri forest. This camp was situated a short pirogue ride downriver from the village of Ngeleza, about halfway between Bunia and Beni, in what was then the Haut-Zaire region of Zaire, now Orientale province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (ca. 1° 16' N, 29° 42' W). On some maps, this river is named "Lowje" or "Loya River", but it is not the "Loya River" in the MSN Encarta World Atlas - that river is situated two degrees further west in the Ituri.
Our guides were Lese villagers, non-Pygmy agriculturalists who exchange their rice, tobacco, manioc and some manufactured articles for meat and honey obtained by the Efe hunters and foragers. The Efe and Lese communicate in mutually intelligible dialects of the KiLese language. The Efe at Bandikoda had become habituated to visits by "mazungus" (foreign tourists, white people), and they graciously permitted five of us to pitch our tents and spend the entire day and night in their midst. The Efe welcomed us with forty-five minutes of singing and dancing, accompanied by drums and honey whistles. There followed some bartering for souvenirs, including the "likembe" thumb piano, the five-stringed "zoma" harp, pounded bark loincloths, and the "asuba" monkey-skin wristband worn by hunters -- the sound of the bowstring snapping against it alerts other hunters in the vicinity.
Some travelers then had designs drawn on their hands and faces by the Efe women -- these took several weeks to rub off! In the afternoon, we joined the males on a hunt through the forest; singing as they went, they triangulated their prey with hunting dogs who wear resonant wooden boxes. The men cover their skins with the yellow powder from a tree before returning to camp. In the evening, we cooked a meal of spaghetti and shared it with our inquisitive hosts.
Further reading -
Grinker, Roy Richard (1994). Houses in the rain forest: ethnicity and inequality among farmers and foragers in Central Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press. [on the relationship between the Lese and Efe]
Wheeler, William F. (2000). Efe pygmies: archers of the African rain forest. New York : Rizzoli. [large format photographs of the Efe on Nduye River, north of Epulu]
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