ABSTRACT
This chapter laces together two musical narratives set in Centrafrique (Central African Republic) in the early 1990s. It focuses on an urban dance music based in the capital, Bangui. The chapter, by contrast, addresses the performative, political, and social circumstances within which BaAka pygmies—who live mostly in the rainforest area in the southwest of the country—are negotiating their daily lives. While zokela musicians continue to compose their own tunes and lyrics, they are delving progressively deeper into local traditions and creatively elaborating on urban culture (weaving in references to Christian religious music or advertising jingles), much in the way that the Mbati songs elaborate and comment on social surroundings. The music of African pygmies has held a special place in ethnomusicological imagination. The overlapping musical spheres described in the chapter illustrate that categories like “traditional,” “popular,” and “modern” are metaphors for ways of seeing, defined by local politics and creative circumstances.
