英语音频杂志：尼日利亚的非洲音乐

 　　The Nigerian Sound of Afrobeat

　　

　　By John Kuti

　　My surname¹ “Kuti” is a normal Hungarian surname – it means something like “Wells” …as in the places where you get water out of the ground. By a strange coincidence “Kuti” is also a name in Nigerian. In the Yoruba language it means “death cannot be caused by any human being”. Now I don’t think that coincidences have any special meaning most of the time – but in this case it is an example of the power of music to tell you things that are impossible to find out any other way.

　　I know this because of a musician – Fela Kuti. He was born in Abeokuta about 60 miles north of Lagos (which was then the capital of Nigeria) in 1938. When he was 20, his parents sent him to London to study medicine. But instead he joined Trinity College of Music, and he formed a band called “Koola Lobitos”. I have no idea where they got that name, but they became quite popular around 1961 in London clubs. They probably played some “r’n’b” which means “rhythm and blues” an American style which, at that time, was being adopted by British groups like the Rolling Stones. They must have played West African styles as well like “high-life” because another member of the band was a singer from Lagos called Jimo Kombi Braimah.

　　I think the first recordings² of Fela Kuti were made under the name “Koola Lobitos”; but by then he had already returned to Nigeria and invented his own style which was called “afrobeat” a mixture of American funk rhythms and jazz improvisation³ with African percussion⁴ and vocals⁵. His first hit was sung in the Yoruba language and recorded by his group “Afrika 70” - Jeun Ko'ku (which means ‘eat and die’)

　　During the 1970s and 1980s Fela was a leader not only in music but in politics. They were complicated times in Africa when many countries in the region had recently become independent. People often found being freed from an empire was not the solution to all their problems. Nigeria had become independent in 1960. In 1968 the terrible Biafran war began, with the short-lived country of Biafra which was in the southern part of Nigeria. Up to a million people died – many of them from starvation. The country has had various periods of military government since then, but democracy was restored with elections in 1999.

　　Fela was never afraid to express his opinions in his songs, and that often got him into trouble. For example his 1977 song “Zombie” about the military mentality…

　　“Zombie - no go talk unless you tell him to talk

　　Zombie - no go think unless you tell them to think”

　　They are very serious songs but they sound happy, with lots of groovy rhythms and energetic trumpet⁶ and saxophone playing. The words are really a special variety of Nigerian Pidgin English, which is the best way to communicate with his audience– there are hundreds of different languages in Nigeria.

　　Fela was always serious about his identity as an African. In his song “Gentleman” he made fun of Africans who wear clothes from cold countries in the tropical heat. In “Colonial Mentality” he also explains why he adopted the African name Anikulapo instead of the English “Ransome” (which he called a “slave-name”.)

　　From the point of view of the government, maybe the worst thing he did was to try to make young Nigerians more interested and more active in the political life of their country. His music is a source of information and an introduction to new ways of thinking.

1 surname   

n.姓；vt.冠姓

参考例句：

• Her first name is Sheila and her surname is Kane.她姓凯恩，名叫希拉。
• Wang is a very common Chinese surname.王是一个很常见的中国姓。

2 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

3 improvisation   

n.即席演奏(或演唱)；即兴创作

参考例句：

• a free-form jazz improvisation 自由创作的爵士乐即兴演出
• Most of their music was spontaneous improvisation. 他们的大部分音乐作品都是即兴创作的。

4 percussion   

n.打击乐器；冲突，撞击；震动，音响

参考例句：

• In an orchestra,people who play percussion instruments sit at the back.在管弦乐队中，演奏打击乐器的人会坐在后面。
• Percussion of the abdomen is often omitted.腹部叩诊常被省略。

5 vocals   

（乐曲中的）歌唱部份，声乐部份( vocal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Also look out for soaring vocals on The Right Man. 另外，也可留意一下《意中人》中的那高亢的唱腔。
• Lazy bass line, lazier drums, lush violins, great piano and incomparable vocals. 懒惰的低音线，较懒惰的鼓，饮小提琴，棒的钢琴和无比的声音。

6 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。