VOA常速英语2007-Preservationists, Artists Work to Revive Traditi

By Lisa Bryant
Tarato, Ivory Coast
10 October 2007

The West African country of Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) has long been a musical hub, attracting artists from across the continent as well as producing its own talent -- like international reggae star, Alpha Blondy. The country's civil war and the disappearance¹ of cultural traditions are taking its toll² on the country's musical heritage. But from the northern village of Tarato, Lisa Bryant reports on new efforts to revive traditional Ivorian music.

Siloue Adama, 45, is one of two balafon makers³ in this small village, skirting a tarmac road. On a recent sunny morning, he sits on a wooden bench, testing sounds produced by different, hollowed-out calabashes. The good ones are tied under the wooden chords of the balafon with strips of cowhide. The finished instrument looks like a giant xylophone.

Speaking in his native Senofo dialect, Adama talks about his craft. Balafons need a special kind of wood, he says - and the gourds⁴ must be just right to produce a sweet sound.

Each chord has a special name. For example, the biggest chord at the end of the instrument is called the 'mother' of the balafon.

Adama said he once earned a decent living making balafons and playing them during harvests and at village festivals. But that changed when civil war broke out in Cote d'Ivoire, in 2002,splitting the country in two. He said people didn't have the money to pay for the instruments - and were fearful to gather in places to listen to them.

Traditional instruments like the balafon are threatened by another phenomenon: Urban migration⁵. When Ivorians and other Africans leave their villages, many are also leaving their musical heritage - usually an oral one - behind.

Even those who stay are turning to hipper⁶ DJ music, mixing Western and African sounds.

The trend might be irreversible.  But Guillaume Zadi is determined⁷ to document the country's musical heritage, and to promote it. So a few years ago, he launched the Ivorian Center for Research and Documentation of African Musicology in Abidjan.

Zadi's Website features instruments, songs and dances from across Cote d'Ivoire. Collecting the information is a painstaking⁸ effort.

When Zadi goes to a village, he says he documents what instruments are played locally and how they're made. He scouts⁹ out musicians and dancers - and even if they're not there, he tries to get an account of the village's musical traditions.

A few blocks away, Cote d'Ivoire's National Music School, is trying to preserve Ivorian music in another way.

Jean-Claude Nguessan, head of the African music department, says the school is trying to write down local music. He believes that's the best way to preserve it.

But not everybody agrees with this idea.  Madeleine Leclair, a West African music specialist at the Museum of Quai Branly in Paris, says putting traditional music to paper doesn't work.

Leclair says writing down the music fails to catch its nuances. Besides, she says, African music is closely tied to local rituals, whether its preserved will depend on whether the rituals continue.

Still, there are some encouraging signs.

Prominent African singers, like Mali's Salif Keita,showcase traditional instruments in their albums. Other instruments and sounds are being blended into Western style music.  And some organizations, like the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, are classifying endangered instruments as part of mankind's cultural heritage.

In Cote d'Ivoire, new festivals are emerging - like one in the southern town of Gagnoa, promoting ethnic¹⁰ Bete music.

And in the north, local music expert Roger Soro describes regional balafon contests, pitting villages against each other - just like a football match.

Soro says these contests have given the balafon a new role: As an instrument that brings people together, after five years of war.

1 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 gourds   

n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Dried gourds are sometimes used as ornaments. 干葫芦有时用作饰品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The villagers use gourds for holding water. 村民们用葫芦盛水。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

6 hipper   

hip（（衣服、音乐等方面）时髦的，赶时髦的）的比较级形式

参考例句：

• So were the two pocket battleships and the big cruisers Admiral Hipper, Seydlitz and Derfflinger. 和这两艘袖珍战列舰一样的还有重巡洋舰希佩海军上将号，赛德利兹号以及德尔福林格号。 来自互联网

7 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

8 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。

9 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

10 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。