KAKILAMBE

Taught by Mamady Keita 21 Sept 1997 College Park MD

Intermediate/Advanced class

Transcribed by Rodger Osgood

Mamady told me that Kaki Lambe is a mask/deity among the Baga people of Guinea. Once a year, the mask is brought out to the assembled villagers to announce what will happen in the coming year. The drummers, priest, and people are in the village center, and the mask is brought from the forest while the drummer's play the slow rhythm. The mask is about 4 feet tall and has raffia all around it. When the mask arrives, it is low to the ground. The people begin singing:

Maimbo, Maimbo imama

Maimbo Kaki Lambe keybou mbe (the "k" in "keybou" sounds gutteral)

Maimbo is a man's name. It was the name of an actual priest, but it is used as the generic name for the priest who officiates at the ceremony. The lyrics mean: "Maimbo, Maimbo we greet you/ Maimbo, greet Kaki Lambe for us."

The people gather around and start praising Kaki Lambe: "Kaki Lambe, we believe in you! Kaki Lambe, we need you!" As they flatter the mask, it mysteriously rises up in the air, eventually to a height of some 15' (no one knows how this happens; Kaki Lambe is kept by a secret society of elder men). There are ropes hanging from the mask, and members of each of the lead families of the village hold onto the ropes. Each family takes a rope: as Mamady said, "one for the Keitas, one for the Camaras, one for the Bangouras," etc.

The special drum break tells the drummers to switch from slow to fast

(roughly double-time). During the fast section, the young men and women come forward and start dancing. The priest moves around the group, leaning in between people to listen to what Kaki Lambe is telling him about the future. At a signal from the priest, the special break is played by the lead drummer, the drummers switch to slow time, and the priest begins announcing Kaki Lambe's information.

Mamady said that this ritual is especially meaningful to the older members of the village, as it has been a yearly event throughout their lives and reminds them of the past and all the people who are no longer alive.

The Sangban and Kenkeni parts are adaptations. They double the part for two differently pitched djembes, which both play the first accompaniment, only the higher one is shifted by a beat to answer the lower one.

The Dununba part is an adaptation of the 'Drama'(sp?) part (see Tiriba above), and Mamady suggested that at higher speeds the Dununba part might be played upright with two sticks, to more closely mimic the hand

pattern of the Drama.

TBD: I will try to notate the break that Mamady played to switch from the fast part to the slow part. Question: In Mamady's explaination he said that the drumming built up faster and faster as the Kakilambe mask rose higher, and then the drummers played a break and slowed down (and played quieter?) while the high priest explained to the people what Kakilambe had told him. When we played the rhythm, Mamady used the break to speed up as well as slow down. Does anybody know if this is traditional to use the break to speed up as well? Is there more than one round of the priest communicating with Kakilambe, then explaining to the people?

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OTHER POST

An oracle-prophet represented in ceremony by a giant mask with many ropes hanging from it. Once a year the many questions of the villagers are asked of Kakilambe as to the events of the upcoming year. Health of the family, prosperity, harvest quality. If someone is sick, Kakilambe may give advice as how to heal, as in how many goats or chickens are to be sacrificed.

The ceremony begins with the slow rhythm to Kakilambe and dance.

During this time the village priest, who has already a relationship with the prophet, is asking the questions and translating the answers from Kakilambe to the heads of the families holding the ropes and others that are in the area. From the giant mask hang many ropes the ends of which are held by one member of a family. In chanting, they all praise and flatter Kakilambe and show their devotion. The more praise, the louder it becomes, the longer it sustains, this giant mask (Kakilambe) begins to levitate, higher and higher. In celebration of the usually positive news the drumming becomes very fast and so the dance. A true reason to celebrate! As to regions of origin, I have been told Kakilambe is sacred to the Boke people of Guinea. I have read that the prophet also honored by the Baga also in Guinea. I have also heard that the mask protects the sacred forests. Remember as with many of the rhythms we learn, there are often the traditional version of both the rhythm and dance and the altered or embellished #ballet# versions.

Hope this adds to our knowledge.

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PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:

The Baga People of Lower Guinea call the mask that protects the sacred forest "Kakilambe" (M'Bemba Bangoura)

An oracle-prophet represented in ceremony by a giant mask with many ropes hanging from it. Once a year the many questions of the villagers are asked of Kakilambe as to the events of the upcoming year. Health of the family, prosperity, harvest quality. If someone is sick, Kakilambe may give advice as how to heal, as in how many goats or chickens are to be sacrificed. The ceremony begins with the slow rhythm to Kakilambe and dance. During this time the village priest, who has already a relationship with the prophet, is asking the questions and translating the answers from Kakilambe to the heads of the families holding the ropes and others that are in the area. From the giant mask hang many ropes the ends of which are held by one member of a family. In chanting, they all praise and flatter Kakilambe and show their devotion. The more praise, the louder it becomes, the longer it sustains, this giant mask (Kakilambe) begins to levitate, higher and higher. In celebration of the usually positive news the drumming becomes very fast and so the dance. A true reason to celebrate! As to regions of origin, I have been told Kakilambe is sacred to the Boke people of Guinea. I have read that the prophet also honored by the Baga also in Guinea. I have also heard that the mask protects the sacred forests. (Translated by Donna Bladso to Alan Tauber from Mamady Keita in Guinea. Jan. 1997)

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A very important mask/diety of the Baga people in the Boke region of western Guinea. Kakilambe comes once a year to give predictions and information to the people. There is a secret society of men that are the custodians of Kaki Lambe.

Maimbo, Maimbo imama

Maimbo, Kaki Lambe kaybou mbe (the "k" in "kaybou" is gutteral, like a

Maimbo, Maimbo, greetings to you (imama),

Maimbo, give our greetings to Kaki Lambe.

As Maimbo (and the people in attendance) flatter Kaki Lambe, it raises up off the ground, from an original height of about four feet, to a height of about fifteen feet. (No one knows how this happens -- it's a secret of the society of Kaki Lambe. The mask is surrounded by raffia, which drapes down around it to the ground.)

There are ropes attached to the bottom of the mask, one for each of the prominent families in the village. Each family has two or three representatives holding the rope: That is, one rope for the Keitas, one for the Camaras, etc. They pull on the rope as Kaki Lambe raises into the air. At this point, the drummers play a break and switch to a fast version (roughly double time) of the rhythm.

During the fast section, the young men and women come forward and start dancing. The priest moves around the group, leaning in between people to listen to what Kaki Lambe is telling him about the future. At a signal from the priest, the special break is played by the lead drummer, the drummers switch to back to the slow version, and the priest begins announcing Kaki Lambe's information. The priest announces the news (predictions about epidemics, crop yields, etc). The people respond, and the drummers switch back to the fast version. Mamady says that there are many versions of the song Kaki Lambe, but we in America have only heard one part of one of them (that I quote above). The elders of the village, especially the women, are most moved by this ceremony, as it is a once-annual marker of their lives. It has been a yearly event and reminds them of the past and all the people who are no longer alive. (Adam Rugo from Mamady Keita)

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Dr. Frederick Lamp says in "Art of the Baga" (1996) that the word kakilambe is actually a Susu word (and not a Baga word) meaning "Reaching as high as the copal tree" (Chapt. 3, p. 58). The Baga call this spirit, "a-Mantsho-no-Pon" meaning The Great Mantsho. Reproduced on page 59 of this book is a drawing by a Catholic missionary (pre 1930) of a masquerade labeled "Kaklembe." The masquerade in this drawing is 40 feet high, using as a scale the height of people in the drawing. The drawing shows 4 drummers, standing, and playing horizontal dununs (junjuns) that are waist high, as if they were suspended by straps from the drummers' shoulders (no drum stands are shown in the drawing). (Dan Trevino)

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Message: 18

Subject: Re: Basikolo

S Macleod wrote to Aboubacar Camara:

Thank You for your information about Basikolo. You mentioned that the one song your friend knows is played to the Kakilambe rhythm. We also play Kakilambe (also pulled off the internet) and it is in 4/4 time whereas the Basikolo song we play (yes, it's a song not a singular rhythm) is in 6/8. We got the Kakilambe rhythm off the Larry Morris rhythm catalogue.

Glenda, here are transcriptions of fragments recently from the list and inauthentic arrangements from Dancing Spirit Drummers (DSD) and others. They are in duple and triple meter--terms I prefer because 4/4 and 6/8 are descriptors for western musical notation (WMN), they really only have meaning when applied to ink on paper, although we all commonly understand 4/4 to mean a duple meter and 6/8 to mean a triple meter. I am told that the "old" traditional rhythm is triple and that the duple is a "new" ballet and festival arrangement.

Kakilambe triple Stephan Rigert:

Mahiri Fadjimba Keita:

Kakilambe triple DSD:

Kakilambe duple DSD:

Kakilambe duple Richard Darsie:

KAKILAMBE (V3)

FIRST

b.ooo.bo.oo.

SOMEONE WROTE:

b.oos.bo.os.

SECOND

SECOND VARIATION with fingertips

SOLO

ssssoossssoo

djuns

KAKILAMBÉ

(Boke-region) of Guinee. Origianally it was played on the Baga-drums that are simalar to the djembe.

"Kakilambé is a very important mask of the Baga people, that appears only once a year. The spirit of the Kakilambé is revered as the protector against evil entities. He appears to make important declarations about the present and the future. A priest of the Kakilambé is like a translator, since the mask doesn't talk directely to the people. It's a big day when the mask appears. Everybody comes to listen. Slowly the mask emerges from thge forest, together with the priests. The people have gathered and are waiting. When all of the people bow, the mask grows to a height of five meters! It holds a string for each individual family of the village, and the other end is held by a member of each family.

When the rhythm gets fast, the priest and some of the older men dance around the mask. The priest receives the information. Then he gives the musicians a sign, they play a break, and then the rhythm is played slower and softer. Afterwards he pa$es on the information given to him by the Kakilambé is a mask-dance of the Baga-people that live in the coastal area mask." (Uschi Billmeier: Mamady Keïta, A life for the djembe).

"These days Kakilambé, the terrifying god of the Baga, is nothing more than a memory causing a few shivers in the minds of the elders. But for centuries he ruled the life of Bagatai; he was the lord of the waters, of rain, of wind and of fire.

Every seven years he came out of the sacred forest, his arrival announced by thunder and the calls of the fetish priests, to appear to the terrified people and, speaking through the local soothsayer, addre$ed the a$embled villagers.

First, he showed his anger against those who had behaved contrary to morality and virtue, by making himself small. The people, lying prostrate on the ground to show their repentance, asked for his forgiven$ and swore to obey him.

"Kelyo! Kelyo! Kakilambé! Kelyo!" (Get up, Kakilambé, rise!)

Then Kakilambé, rea$ured that he was still lord of the children of the Bagatai, just as he had been of their fathers and their fathers' fathers, and swelling with joy, grew big again, and predicted seven years of happine$ and prosperity. Then, accompanied by songs and dances of joy and gratitude, he disappeared for another seven years.

So, "for seven years the land will be prosperous and the women fertile" Kakilambé has said so. But, whether the land would in fact be prosperous and the women fertile, depended on the primary power of the men, and of the SENGBE (sacred drums). The man dances, showing his strength, his virility, his confidence and his determination to work with respect for the customs of their people. And, as a start to the favours Kakilambé has promised his people, the godde$ of fertility suddenly appears: Nimba with the enormous breasts. The men shout with joy, the women and the girls soon to be married bring offerings and sing:

"O Nimba ! The belly without child, is like a cinder in the desert wind, like a leaf in a bush-fire.

O Nimba ! godde$ of fertility, o Nimba ! you who make the sap rise in the dust

Here are my breasts, let them be the same as yours

Here is my belly, that the sap of the Baga may continue to rise"

And, in a vibrant frenzy, the men and the women of the Baga are united in complete communion, certain that they are protected by the gods."

(text and pictures from a leaflet of the Worldtour of the Ballet de Guinée, ('65-'67).

"The Baga are only a very small etnic group and there are no more than about 32.000 Baga living in Guinea. Frederick Lamp, in his book, "The Art of the Baga"(1996), says that Kakilambé is called "a-Mantsho-`no-Pön" by the Baga and is "the supreme male spirit of the Sitemu subgroup" (of the Baga). Dr.Lamp says that the word Kakilambé is actual a word in the Susu-language meaning "Reaching as high as the copal tree".

There are dozens of songs to the Kakilambé-rhythm; this one is the welcoming song: Welcome to the Kakilambé-mask!

Mai'm bo, mai'm bo mama, mai'm bo Kakilambé kekumbe

KAKILAMBÉ / WAP-PAGES / LAST CHANGED AT 02-04-2001

Call 1

Call 2

DUNS-COMBINATION 1

Kenkeni

Sangban

Dun Dun

DUNS-COMBINATION 2

Kenkeni

Sangban

Dun Dun

DUNS-COMBINATION 3

S

D

Djembé 1

Djembé 2

Djembé 3

Djembé 4

Djembé 5

Djembé solo accompagnement (fingertips)

Break 1