Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about the Liberian folk song "Banuwa" that have been popularized in the United States and in other countries since the 1950s.That post presents an article excerpt and comments from other online sources about the Liberian folk song "Banuwa" including a comment from my 2014 pancocojams post.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2024/11/seven-video-examples-of-liberian-folk.html for Part I. That post showcases six YouTube videos of the song "Banuwa". (Notice that the earlier form of that word "Banua" was eventually changed to the phonetic spelling "Banuwa").
That pancocojam post also showcases a YouTube sound file of the 1963 African American Rhythm & Blues song "Bon-doo-wah".
The content of this post is presented for historical, folkloric, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of the Liberian folk song that became "Banuwa". Thanks to all those who composed and arranged modified versions of that Liberian folk song. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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SELECTED ONLINE SOURCES ABOUT THE LIBERIAN FOLK SONG "BANUWA" AND ITS MODIFIED VERSIONS THAT HAVE SPREAD FROM THE UNITED STATES AROUND THE WORLD
I'm presenting the online article excerpt that is given as #1 below as the first source I;m quoting because it provides the most comprehensive history of how the Liberian song "Banuwa" became a widely known African folk song in the United States and from there in many other countries worldwide.
I'm presenting the comment that is given as #2 below because that comment is what motivated me to re-visit the song "Banuwa" that I published a pancocojams post about in 2014. Thanks, John Dahlin for the information that you shared in your comment!
It should be noted that most of the YouTube videos of "Banuwa" either have no comments or their comment featured has been turned off, in some instances, because of YouTube's rule about no comments for children's videos.
ONLINE SOURCE #1
https://compvid101.blogspot.com/2012/09/lost-somewhere-in-translation-banuwa.html
Comparative Video 101
Before the passing of Neil Armstrong and my resulting
article last week on the John Stewart song about him intervened, I had
originally intended this week's piece as a direct follow-up to the article on
"Canastas y mas canastas/Coplas" from two weeks ago because of
several interesting parallels between that Mexican tune and our present
selection from Africa, "Banuwa." Both songs appeared in U.S.
folksingers' repertoires about the same time in the mid-1950s; both are in
languages other than English; both were interpreted by a number of high-profile
artists - and both may well have been contextually misunderstood by the
American performers who sang them - or who still do.
In that last respect, "Banuwa" may share more in common than you might at first guess with two other traditional numbers that originated in Africa, "Mangwani Mpulele" and "Wimoweh." If you glance at the piece on "Wimoweh" and pay especial attention to the remarks by Joseph Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo - and listen to that group's sublime rendition - it becomes immediately apparent that the "hunting chant" approach to the song presented by The Weavers, the Kingston Trio, and The Tokens is far off base in terms of the song's actual meaning. Likewise, "Mangwani" may well be a wedding song as Theo Bikel and Laura Brannigan present it, but if so it is closer to the naughty "Canastas/Coplas" than it is to Noel Stookey's wonderfully religious and romantic composition also called "The Wedding Song."
American folksingers' occasional inability to appreciate cultural contexts is hardly surprising, especially if we remember that the songs cited above found their way into our pop/folk music song bag well before the era of broadened legal immigration policies of the 1970s and of the economic globalization that began to take serious shape in the 1990s, both of which have begun to chip away at the parochialism that has afflicted our country fully as much as it has most others.
[…]
Though such cultural disconnects may sometimes result in
unintentional offense (discussed in this blog, for example, in a song like the
rewrite of "Si Me Quieres Escribir" into "Coast of
California"), more often than not no harm is done by a folk process that
converts one song into another, often very different in topic or intent from
the original.
The Liberian song "Banuwa" exemplifies both a misunderstood original intent in some versions but a delightful transformation into a very different tune in others. The traditional number is tribal in origin and is said to be either a lullaby or a processional. Possibly so; take a look at the brief, simple lyric:
Banuwa, Banuwa, Banuwa yo
A la no, nehnio la no
Nehnia la no
Banuwa, Banuwa, Banuwa yo
which is generally translated as something like
Don't cry, don't cry, pretty little girl don't cry.
Don't cry, don't cry, pretty little girl don't cry.
Your father off at the village
Your mother's out for a while
Your brother's down by the river.
Don't cry little girl, don't cry.
This may be what it appears literally to be, a lullaby
comforting a fussy and discontented little child. Compare it to, for example,
"Rock-a-bye, Baby" - which, when you think about it, is really a
pretty terrifying lyric, what with the breaking branch and falling baby. The
soothing singing voice of the mother (traditionally) takes the terror out of
it, we hope.
But consider the "Banuwa" lyric again - why would it comfort a child to know that father, mother, and brother are away from home? It sounds like cause for sadness or anxiety rather more than relief. That leaves open the possibility that the song functions on two levels, like most fairy tales and nursery rhymes do.
[…]
…the westerners who found the melody and harmony pleasing in
the 1950s did not seem to know much about "Banuwa" except for its
African pedigree. My friend Art Podell of the early New Christy Minstrels told
me this morning that the song swept through Greenwich Village like wildfire
mid-decade, and he had heard performers do it at college folk festivals as
well. Pete Seeger seems not surprisingly to be the source of the tune in the
U.S., as he was for dozens of songs from around the world. One of the first American
recordings, if not the earliest, was by on a 1955 LP by a Village pick-up group
directed by Seeger called The Song Swappers that included Erik Darling (soon to
replace Seeger in the Weavers), Alan Arkin, and a chorus of teens from the
Little Red Schoolhouse including a 17-year-old Mary Travers, later of Peter,
Paul and Mary. This page from Smithsonian Folkways Records includes a sample of
this version, and you can clearly hear Mary's not-yet-mature voice at the top
of the vocal blend.
I would be willing to bet the farm that this record was in the possession of Kingston Trio founding member Dave Guard, who has the solo copyright for the next three versions and that he listed as "adapted by" for the KT's debut album. Most Trio fans will recognize from that Folkways page that the Song Swappers also include two more songs - "Bimini Gal" and "Oleanna" - that were later rewritten by other lyricists and that appeared on two other very early KT albums. Guard took his cue from the Swappers' more uptempo rendition of the African chant and turned it into a brief but entertaining calypso tune, reflecting his interest in that latter genre.
[…]
"Banuwa" has "legs" as they used to say on Broadway in all of its many versions. It is widely performed by choral groups worldwide, especially in the arrangement by Mike Brewer, who included it in his Three African Songs collection. Lullaby or flirting song or calypso, its essential simplicity and tunefulness guarantee that it will be around a lot longer than any of us will."
****ONLINE SOURCE #2
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/12/three-examples-of-liberian-folk-song.html [comment]
"Hello!
I was browsing the internet while sipping my morning cup of coffee when a song from my childhood popped into my head- "Bon Doo Wah' by the Orlons (from Philadelphia!). I find the song on Youtube and enjoy listening as it conjures up some of my earliest memories. When reading the description of the song, it's noted that the melody is based on 'the calypso song Banua'. Down the rabbit hole I go! First stop - the Kingston Trio. Not really a fan of their music, but I hear the similar melody to the Orlons song. I could not find anything further relating the song to being a 'calypso' song, and more research takes me across the Atlantic to Liberia! Now I have learned all about this melody and it's origins. I was a radio DJ and ran record shops throughout the 80s and 90s and have always had an affinity for Caribbean and African music, and you have helped broaden my knowledge and connect it to my earliest memories! Your blog entry puts the icing on the whole learning experience. Thank You, John Dahlin"
ONLINE SOURCE #3
Google search result for the question "What language is the song "Banuwa" in"
" AI Overview
"Banuwa" is a Liberian folk song, and the word
itself translates to "Don't cry, little girl, don't cry" in the
Liberian language, which is most likely a variation of Kolokwa (Liberian
Kreyol), a pidgin language spoken widely in Liberia; essentially, it's
considered a Liberian vernacular language with influences from English and
various indigenous languages.
Key points about Banuwa:
Meaning: "Don't cry, little girl, don't cry"
Origin: Liberian folk song
Language: Considered to be in Liberian Kreyol (Kolokwa)"
ONLINE SOURCE #4
YouTube video "African choir sings banuwa", published by Nico van den Berge, Jun 1, 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMe5EFqeHis
[translated in this video description by the publisher from Dutch]
"One by one the choir members appear from their seat and walk to the stage in front. The choir of the African Bible University in Uganda sings Banuwa during the gradution ceremony of 2009. The Mzungu in the choir is my wife Inge. Does anybody know what the word Banuwa means? (we don't) nvandenberge@cs.com"
-snip-
The word "Mzungu" is a colloquial (sometimes considered to be offensive) term in East Africa which means "White person".
Comments from that video's discussion thread:
1. @zibblate, 2009
"I think I remember from junior high school it was, "Don't cry, Don't Cry, pretty little girl don't cry. Don't cry, Don't Cry, pretty little girl don't cry. Your father off at the village your mothers out for a while, your brothers down by the river. No need to sit and cry." Or close to that. But this sounds like a slightly different version than what we sang
**
Reply
2. @CodyAdamsMusic, 2011
"@zibblate We are doing this song in my school, and the only english in it is "Sing Noel, Sing Noel, Noel, Noel", and "We sing a joyful Noel!" but the translation it showed on the bottom of the music for Banuwa, Banuwa, Banuwa Yo was "Don't cry, don't cry, pretty little girl don't cry", and honestly, my favorite part, "ala no neh ni a la no", it reminds me of the lion king lol"
**
Reply
3. @annieschmidt7301, 2018
"CodyAdamsMusic omg same im performing it tonite for a christmas concert"
**
Reply
4. @temitopefaleti7053, 2018
"CodyAdamsMusic That's what has been happening to me in the last few years; any time I am listening to one of Joseph Martin's cantatas and hear Sing Noel, I end up singing Banuwa"
**
5. @michaelkohl4541, 2016
"This song is from Liberia as far as I know.
And the main theme of this song is: Pretty girl, do not cry.
Greetings from Vienna, Austria, Central Europe."
Reply
6. @annieschmidt7301, 2018
"
**
Reply
7. @Foxy_kat1111, 2023
"Michael is right, Annie is not. It does mean, pretty girl do not cry. Most folk songs are uplifting and trying to make the FOLK happy! So check your facts next time, AnNiE"
**
8. @nvandenberge, 2010 [video publisher]
"@jesst666 Well, uh, don't know if this is THE original version. We tried to have it as original as possible, but who on earth knows the original version of a folk song like this? "
-snip-
This description statement and this comment were both quoted in Part I of this pancocojams post after that video (which is given as #3 in that post.]
**
9. @wilcokloosterman, 2011
"Banuwa is a Liberian folk song used as a love song, lullaby, or even a processional. Here is the original text and translation:
Banuwa, Banuwa, Banuwa yo
A la no, nehnio la no
Nehnia la no
Don't cry, Don't Cry, pretty little girl don't cry.
Don't cry, Don't Cry, pretty little girl don't cry.
-snip-
How old is this "original" text and does it pre-date the lyrics that American folk singers recorded? Also, what was this song's original tune? (It's likely that it wasn't Calypso.)
**
10. @TheKappytime, 2014
"Quite nice. Ww learned this song about 40 years ago at Washington Elementary School in Peoria, Illinois, USA. A few verses I somewhat recall..
" your daddy's gone to the river.
your mother's gone for a while
so just be s still my
darling.
no need to sit and cryyyyyy.... "
****
ONLINE SOURCE #4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N30SyMvUS8A "Banuwa Liberian Folk Song Body Music"
published by eliana danzì, Jan 18, 2021
Solo voci e corpo per questo arrangiamento nato da un lavoro di gruppo del Seminario OSI online "La musica che ho", condotto da Eliana Danzì
-snip-
Google translate of this video description from Italian to English:
Only voices and body for this arrangement born from a
group work of the OSI online Seminar "La musica che ho", conducted by
Eliana Danzì
-snip-
There are a few comments in this video's discussion thread. All of those comments that I can make sense of praise that performance.
-snip-
"Body music" is another referent for "body patting" / "patting Juba" and (doing) "Hambone".
Here's a link to another YouTube example of "Banuwa" that features people doing body patting while singing that song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm9Bn_zcAdQ "Banuwa - Pop. africana" published by Coral Ágora de Segovia, Sep 9, 2018
#CursoCantoCoralXXII #JavierCorcuera
Obra: Banuwa
Director: Javier Corcuera
Extracto del Concierto de Calle del XXII Curso de Canto
Coral Ágora, grabado el 28 de agosto de 2018 en las escaleras de la Iglesia de
San Martín (Segovia).
-snip-
Google translate from Spanish to English:
"Extract from the Street Concert of the XXII Ágora Choral Singing Course, recorded on August 28, 2018 on the stairs of the Church of San Martín (Segovia)."
-snip-
That church is in Spain.
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ONLINE SOURCE #5
https://pdfbandmusic.com/products/banuwa "Banuwa", Beginning Band - Holiday Music, publisher Jerry Frazier [no publishing date is given for this page.]
" "Banuwa" is a Liberian folk song most often performed during the holiday season. The music represents quality and community among the people. The simple, yet lovely, melodic line is playable by beginning bands and which make the piece an excellent choice for the first beginning band concert."
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This concludes Part Ii of this two part pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
