Bikutsi is a musical genre from Cameroon. It developed from the traditional styles of the Beti, or Ewondo, people, who live around the city of Yaoundé. It was popular in the middle of the 20th century in West Africa. The word ‘bikutsi’ literally means ‘beat the earth’ or ‘let’s beat the earth’ (bi- indicates a plural, -kut- means ‘to beat’ and -chi means ‘earth’).
Women of all ages jump to their feet to dance along, while the men look on, clapping and calling out to each other. Most women bikutsi singers are frank about s*xual pleasure. Bikutsi is characterized by an intense rhythm (3+3, with a strong “two” feel), though it is occasionally and its tempo is usually quarter note.
It is played at all sorts of Beti gatherings, including parties, funerals, and weddings. Young girls are taught to be withdrawn and discreet, they are taught to sing loud and be clear about their s*xual appetites.
Beti gatherings fall into two major categories:
Ekang phase: the time when imaginary, mythological and spiritual issues are discussed
Bikutsi phase: when real-life issues are discussed
A double-sided harp with calabash amplification called the mvet, is used during these ceremonies, by Beti storytellers, who are viewed as using the mvet as an instrument of God to educate the people.
The Ekang phase is intensely musical and usually lasts all night. There are poetic recitations accomp
an
ied by clapping and dancing, with interludes for improvised and sometimes obscene performances on the balafon (a type of xylophone).
These interludes signal the shift to the bikutsi phase, which is much less strictly structured than Ek
ang. During bikutsi, women dance and sing along with the balafon, and lyrics focus on relationships, sexuality, and the lives of famous people.
These female choruses are an integral part of bikutsi, and their intense dancing and screams are characteristic of the genre. Traditional bikutsi was often ironic in its content, as many modern bikutsi songs still are.
In its modern form, bikutsi is very popular, and rivals makossa as the country’s most renowned style. Bikutsi, a dance celebrating sexuality and relationships, has taken center s
tage across Cameroon in the past three decades.
The form arose in patriarchal communities where women were forbidden “to raise their voices in public”, Cameroonian ethnomusicologist Jean Maurice Noah wrote in his book on the subject. Olivia Beyene, Bikutsi singer said: “That’s the soppy, frilly side, that’s what it is.
It’s a bit seductive too, it’s part of bikutsi, especially on stage and it’s specific to Cameroon, it’s specific to the Cameroon bikutsi show.” An artistic director says Bikutsi is hyper erotic, sensual and expresses what is basic.
The ground, the earth, the essence, and at the end of the day, there is what is essential to man, to the human being, a rapprochement between man and woman. Olivia adds
: “It’s kind of popular.
In Cameroon the population likes it, the population likes the perverse side, that’s what attracts attention. It’s just to attract attention and to play to the gallery. But if not, behind all this, there is always a message to convey.”
Bikutsi was born in pre-colonial times in the fang, bulu, and beti ethnic areas of central and southern Cameroon, where women would gather together after a hard day’s work, without the men, to sing and dance of joys, sorrows, and frustrations.
In this era of freedom, some women expressed, the pain of living next to a violent husband, while others shared the secrets of a successful marriage with the younger ones. Popular bikutsi first appeared in the 1940s with the recording of Anne-Marie Nzie. Some twenty years later, the style was electrified with the addition of keyboards and guitars.
The most popular performer of this period was Messi Me Nkonda Martin, frontman for Los Camarones and known as “the father of modern bikutsi music”.
In an effort to translate the sound and spirit of traditional bikutsi music to more modern terms, Messi incorporated the sound of a balafon into the electric guitar by linking
together the guitar strings with lengths of cotton cord. Played in this way, the electric guitar sounded similar to the balafon.
The music itself, then, was only slightly altered, while the image and outside perception of bikutsi music was changed enormously. Other bands during this time, such as Les Vétérans, were also popular.
International acclaim began in 1987 with the formation of Les Têtes Brûlées by Jean Marie Ahanda. The late guitarist of Les Têtes Brulées, Zanzibar, invented the trick of dumping the strings of his guitar with a strip of foam rubber to produce the music’s characteristic balafon-like thunk.
Present-day bikutsi as performed by artists like Lady Ponce, K Tino, Racine Sagath, and Natascha Bizo is sometimes regarded as controversial. It has been criticized for the perceived s$xual content of its lyrics and dancing style. In this respect, bikutsi r
esembles mapouka from Côte d’Ivoire, which is also considered indecent by many Africans.
The main difference is that present-day bikutsi is still often performed by female artists who use it as a means of self-expression in a traditionally male-dominated society. Thus a singer like K-Tino, self-styled femme du Peuple (woman of the people) sees herself as having an important part to play in the emancipation and liberation of the women of Cameroon.
Among the current crop of artists are Patou Bass and Ovasho Bens, the promoter of dance and philosophy called “zig-zag”. His first album is composed not only of Cameroonian traditional rhythms but also West Indian zouk and Jamaican-style reggae.
Bikutsi
has influenced Western musicians such as Paul Simon on his 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints.
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