Kuimba: Music
Lolwa Wambuti (from the CD "Salimu! Heshimu!")
(Kuimba)
Lyrics, Music and Performance, the Wambuti from Lolwa, Congo
We hiked out a mile or so from the village of Lolwa to where we had been told that we’d find a group of the Wambuti (Forest People). We found them dog tired at the end of a day of work in a Villager’s garden in the scorching sun. (The Wambuti are shade dwellers.) As the forest is cut back it seems the Wambuti’s fortunes are cut back with it. They are demanded upon for hard labor with very little return. Eight percent of the proceeds of the sale of this CD goes to a fund for the Wambuti. That still doesn’t replace the cut back forest… In spite of their being so tired that day they sang for us and agreed to let us record it. As you can hear, they sang and played their instruments beautifully. (Kris says it sounds to him like their lament.) I always think to myself when listening to the Wambuti, “Our ancestors too were Indigenous people. Perhaps even the same ancestors as theirs…”