LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Basic anthropology lessons also taught me that there is a direct link between language and culture, in the history of mankind. Not everyone might be aware of that. One notable fact is that the use of “double meanings” or “metaphor” through language, is how culture – and cultural differences – took shape. A conscious linguistic creation, or “word power”, less so the other way around (first culture then words?).
POSSIBILITY AND REFLECTION
Because of all this I always was interested in etymology: the origins of certain terms or words, in the own or other languages, the historical origins and changes. “What’s in a name?”, Shakespeare wrote. He meant of course that in itself is not “truth”.. good to remember. Words are certainly not necessarily “truth” , I even argue that words conceal more “truth” than they reveal. What words always are, however: possibility, as well as reflections. Also in light of its role in cultural formation.
BONGO
From this last angle (possibility and reflection), I am going to focus in the remainder of this post on the etymology of a word I studied, with relevance for my personal interests and passions: the word “bongo”.
For this blog I wrote a lot about Cuban and Jamaican music, as well as other interests of mine, such as Africa, and international developments. Of course I discussed already on some posts the Afro-Cuban musical instrument, the drum the Bongos, more correctly in Cuban Spanish, the singular: Bongó (for both attached drums). That might be internationally the best known meaning of Bongo, among most people.
Yet there’s more to it.
DRUMS
Bongó as term for the small attached drums appeared in the mountainous East of Cuba, the regions of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba, first around the Late 19th c.. Local music forms, such as the Son Changüí and the Son, used initially a combination of instruments, including guitars, a thumb piano as bass (marimbula), shakers, and the bongo drums. Earliest drums called “bongó” go back to the late 19th c., and were called “del monte” (from the hills).
A bit later, as Son developed (from Changüí, around Santiago de Cuba), the Bongó changed somewhat in playing style (small drum on other site, tuning pegs). This adapted “son” form of Bongó travelled later to Havana (and beyond).
(Photo above: a photo I took of a local (Son-style) Bongó player in Los Dos Abuelos, a patio-based music club in Santiago de Cuba.)
There is a strong Congo/Central African influence among the Afro-Cubans in Eastern Cuba, and the instrument the Bongó (as well as the marimbula) shows this Bantu influence (open bottoms, e.g.). Also the name, according to some historians. Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz traces it back to a few words in the Bantu and Congo area in Africa, such as “Mgombo”, simply meaning drum, but probably mixed with other words meaning something like “cultural”.
Ortiz also noted that similar early "bongó-like" drums had another name in the province Holguín, in the NE of Cuba (and North of Guantanamo and Santiago), namely "Tahona". This sounds more European than bongó, and indeed the province Holguín is ethnically much more "Whiter" than Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, as I also noticed when I once travelled from Holguín to friends in Santiago de Cuba. Incidentally, I also passed by Birán in Holguín where Fidel Castro (indeed also a White Cuban) came from. His Galician (N-Spain)-born father had a plantation there, employing a.o. Haitians. But I digress, haha.
Historian Farris-Thompson concluded that the African origins of slaves in the Americas did differ from region to region, but that the “Congo” area united them almost all, as slaves from Central Africa were relatively widespread throughout the whole Americas. Indeed, culturally it left legacies in various countries and folk traditions. From Argentina to the US South.
Relatively much in Cuba and Brazil (where an estimated 40% of the enslaved Africans were from Congo/Central Africa). Interestingly, historians points at some difference between these once Iberian colonies, as to Brazil went more slaves from the Angola area, and to Cuba more from what is now DR Congo.
Yet, in several colonies “Congo” or “Bantu” slaves made up quite a percentage among the Africans. In Jamaica, about 20%.
JAMAICA
In Jamaican speech, especially the local Creole (Patois) or variants of Jamaican English, the word “bongo” is used regularly, and not just for drums.
Bongo is used for drums in Jamaica too, to be sure, not even always the mentioned Cuban drums, but often as a colloquial term for all drums, even if more correctly having own names (conga, kete, djembe, etc.). Culturally more intriguing is its other uses in Jamaica, notably among some spiritual movements, including the Rastafari. While vague, it is deeply cultural.
In Jamaican speech a “bongo” is even a word for, simply, a “black man” or a “dark-skinned African” ("backra" is then white man, "coolie" an East Indian), but goes beyond appearance. Among the Rastafari, “Bongo” is a kind of honorary title for an elder: someone with a long, founding history among the Rastas, keeping the culture alive. A term of “authenticity”, you might say. Rastafari elders (older men) - or other "key" tradition keepers, are thus often called “Bongo”, as in Bongo Joe, Bongo Jerry, or Bongo Herman (a well-known Reggae percussionist). Often there is a link with their drumming (Nyabinghi or otherwise).
An intriguing use, also because of how Jamaican historians define it, such as in the Dictionary of Jamaican English (ed. By F.G. Cassidy and R.B. Le Page). “Bongo” or also “bungo”’s original meaning, also in some Bantu languages (around Cameroon and Congo) partly “country bumpkin”, is asserted in this dictionary. Actually, they mention a non-Bantu language, N-Nigerian Hausa where “bongo” is used for “country bumpkin”. Thus somewhat derogatory as “backward” peasants, named as such by more urban, modernized people, in some parts of Africa.
This odd mix of uses, further mixed with the inferiority complex due to Jamaica’s colonial past, as “bongo” was often used derogatory for “country” people, but also for someone looking very Black or African, thereby upholding European, rather than own beauty standards.
This makes the positive use and meanings among the Rastafari adherents of “Bongo” – i.e. a true, “cultural” Rastaman, a wise elder, cultural safeguard of tradition -, rebellious and assertive. A proud reaffirmation of the African cultural heritage. Language, - here the term “Bongo” -, as “possibility” or “word power”.
KUMINA
There is another spiritual tradition in Jamaica, though, where Bongo is used, one of largely African (Congo) origin: Kumina. Kumina is especially found in Eastern Jamaica, the mountainous parish of St Thomas and around. It originated among Africans of mainly Congo origin, becoming in time a bit more pan-African, with references to Yoruba, Igbo, or Akan cultures, also present among African slaves. The main cosmology and vocabulary of Kumina remained Congo/Bantu, however. Spirit possession dances, aimed at ancestors passing knowledge, or on “healing”, form core rituals whereby good drumming and chants – with even remnants of the Congo language – invoke the right spirits. This relates to chants and drum patterns.
Well now, these Kumina-initiated families get the title ‘Bongo’. So also honorary as name/title in that sense, with special “safeguarding” functions in the Kumina tradition.
In the collective volume ‘Chanting down Babylon: the Rastafari reader’ (several authors, ed. by N.s. Murrell, W.D. Spencer, and A.A. McFarlane, 1998), authors point out that in fact Rastafari was partly influenced by Kumina, as early Rastas knew about Kumina and had connections with them. In percussion there is a direct influence, such as through known percussionists like Count Ossie, said to be connected to Kumina. The “heartbeat” rhythm of the big drums in Congo-based Kumina influenced Rastafari Nyabinghi drum patterns, though somewhat simplified and slowed when compared to Kumina.
In the above volume, the term “bongo” is mostly used when referring to Kumina terminology, but thus with an influence on Rastafari. Kumina has a longer history (19th c., while Rastafari as such since the 1930s).
SPIRITUAL
The term Bongó in Eastern Cuba for the drums, seemed more practical, though not meaningless. It might on some level denote “African” as Bongo in Jamaican colloquial speech, distinguishing it from other instruments from other continents (Spanish/Canarian guitars, notably) in Cuban Son music, while partly also meaning, simply: drum.
Interestingly, originally the Bongó in earliest forms of Son and Changüí were called “bongó de monte” (bongo from the hills/mountains), referring to a rural origin, and the rural reference the term Bongo has in some African languages.
While many well-known early Bongo players in Cuba, also after it spread to Havana, had links with Afro-Cuban spirituality and faiths (Santería, Abakuá, or Palo), the Bongos themselves became part of popular music, first in the rural East.
When the Son genre moved to Western Cuba, the White colonial establishment at first discouraged and even forbade such “African” drums – yet in time, the Bongos joined the increased acceptance of Afro-Cuban music, later also internationally, finding a way in US-developed Salsa and other Latin genres, as may be more known.
The “spiritual” got somewhere in the back behind amusement, it seems, in the Cuban case, but not lost. Several of the early pioneers of Bongo playing in Cuba incorporated Afro-Cuban spiritual drumming aspects (from e.g. Yoruba-based Santería), but translated them for popular music. It therefore cannot be separated fully.
In Jamaica, the very word “Bongo” came to mean both “earthly” as “spiritual”. This fitted with the “natural livity” part of the Rastafari faith. Spirit possession was accepted less, due to the Christian influence on Rastafari, but some aspects of Kumina and similar African traditions found a way – as said - in Rastafari. The relationship between drumming and “spirituality” (healing, community) is shown more abstractly in Nyabinghi sessions, where often the word “bongo” is used too, though the drums have own names (kete, fundeh, repeater), from yet other (Akan) African traditions. So, like in Cuba, there were (reworked) pan-African influences at play.
BANTU
The connection to specifically the Bantu-speaking area and the Congo region of the word “Bongo” was never questioned, though. The term’s early appearance in Eastern Cuba and Kumina confirm that Congo origin, even beyond the superficial fact that the word just “sounds” Bantu: such as more words, like the “mb” and “ng” combination, but that is no guarantee.
Some words with “ng” or “mb” sound and are Bantu/Congo in origin, also in the African diaspora (“mambo” in Cuban music, “makamba” for White man in Curaçao, some even say "tango"), but more African language groups have e.g. the “ng” sound (from the Kwa and Mande languages), or even have “bongo”-like words that have another origin. Just coincidence, as in some Mande-languages (Guinea area), “kongo” means “hunger”, but has nothing to do with the river or territory in Central Africa.
It is true, though, that “ng” and “mb” are common sounds in several Bantu languages, and many retained African words in Caribbean creole languages with “mb” and “ng” are indeed of Bantu/Congo origin , also in Jamaican and other English-based creoles (“gunga” for pea, for instance).
Also the word “Kaya” (for marijuana/weed) in Jamaican patois, known from the Bob Marley & Wailers album and song, is of Congo/Bantu origin, meaning something like “ leaves” or “plants”. This is significant as Africans of Congo region origin tended in several parts of the Americas be relatively knowledgeable about “healing plants” or herbs, probably due to the(rain) forested character of the Congo basin of their African roots. Slaves from the Guinea are came from more Savanna or steppe/Sahel environments, and those from Southern Nigeria, Ghana etc. somewhere in between (partly forested too, savannah’s).
In Jamaica, therefore, the term “Bongo” is at times also used for a natural healer through plants, often at the same time an authentic Rasta man. Also, colloquially, I heard the mentioning of “Bongo” locks, apparently in reference to specific, thick dreadlocks on a Rasta man. So the term “Bongo” has gotten quite some use in Jamaican speech. A broad use, as well: used to refer to drums, as well as “a black man/African” or “Rasta man”.
This translates in several Reggae lyrics of course: by Bob Marley and many others, often in combination with Natty (Bongo Natty).
This use is also found in other English Creole languages, such as in Trinidad.
In Cuba, the term Bongó refers mostly – also in lyrics – to the well-known instrument (other terms exist to denote very Black or African people), although a similar word is found for another drum, in the Abakuá tradition: the Bonkó Enchemiya. This drum is a lot longer (and more conical) than the bongo drums – sounds therefore deeper -, but the name (as general term for “drum) might be related, the Abakuá tradition in Cuba stemming mostly from the Calabar region (border area Nigeria/Cameroun), close to Bantu-speaking areas.
NAMES IN AFRICA
“Bongo”, thus, refers to Africa, but how concretely? The name of drums in Bantu languages (even if adapted), okay, but also ethnically and geographically?
In fact, there are several geographic or ethnographic names of “Bongo” in Africa, in different countries. Sometimes a town and region, in N-Ghana, Ivory Coast, Angola, or a mountain range (CAR), and even a people in South Sudan, called the Bongo, speaking – you guessed it -the Bongo language. Again, this can be coincidence.
Studies are as yet inconclusive, so it is hard to prove a direct link between, say, the provincial town Bongo (or Mbongo, but so pronounced) in Angola – unfortunately a main “ slave source” for especially the Portuguese and Dutch. It is probable, anyway.
Bongo, a town and region in the far NE of Ghana - or the Bongo commune in SE Ivory Coast - could maybe have influenced its use in Jamaica, where many Akan/Ghanaian slaves ended up, though the enslaved Akan came from more to the South in Ghana, and had a different language family.
Even the remaining possible origins are less improbable than one would think: stories and legends can travel far away between peoples, so possibly also about the Bongo people, related to Sudanic-speaking people like the Sara and Dinka, in South Sudan and Uganda, but not far from the DR Congo. Their culture is clearly African, and drum-rich.
Sadly, the Bongo are as a culture and nation presently “endangered”.
Likewise, a Pygmy-related people in Gabon is also called Bongo, and are surrounded by Bantu. Bongo in Gabon are known as “forest people”, and speak the Bantu languages of their neighbours. They are also knowns as BaBongo, but the Ba-prefix means “people” in Bantu, similar to BaKongo.
Fittingly, the BaBongo have a percussion-rich culture, and extra remarkable for this post, know instruments comparable to those known traditionally in Cuba, such as a clay jug blown within (a wind instrument), a lamellophone (like the marímbula in Cuba) and a friction instrument similar but lower than the Brazilian cuica (also rubbed from within the drum, as the cuica), similar in sound to one known historically among Afro-Cubans of Congo descent and in Palo, as well as to the Ekue in Abakuá.
Thus, while descending from original “pre-Bantu” pygmy Africans – and not known whether some of them were enslaved and brought to the West, like their Bantu neighbours (not impossible), the Babongo culture surely is part of the Bantu cultural complex, also influential in Eastern Cuba.
Further possible links, are the common ancestor name Mbongo in the oral tradition in (Bantu) Cameroon Sawa peoples, as well as a toponym in northern inland DR Congo.
If these are direct links is unsure, the ones about the Mbongo town in central Angola (Huambo), or the ancestor name in Cameroon, seem somewhat more plausible, but regardless, the fact that the term Bongo recurs as name throughout Central Africa is telling. It is a very African word in sound, haha.
Not surprisingly, the surname or family name “Bongo” or very similar ones (like Mbongo) are common in some African countries as well (Angola, DR Congo,Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon a.o.).
AFRICAN LANGUAGES
Looking at linguistic use, apart from names, it becomes even more doubtful. There it is much more coincidence in certain cases, and maybe some historical/language family connection in other cases.
The Bongo people in South Sudan call themselves that, with “Bongo” meaning simply “people” or “men”. They speak a Sudanic – not a Bantu language.
Regarding the latter, that “bongo” means in Swahili – a widespread language mixing Bantu and Arab – “the brain”, is interesting. Again: an eventual link with the African Diaspora in the West is hard to tell, however, though not impossible. The new Tanzanian music genre Bongo Flava – actually a mix of local and international influences - is named after this, as Dar Es Salaam urban residents are known as “clever”, and the city as Ubongo: “brainland”. Some outside Tanzania call even the country as a whole (U)bongo, all from the Swahili for “brain”. Ubongo or Bongo thus became a kind of nickname among some for Tanzania.
A link with drumming seems not apparent. Among the Yoruba people of SW Nigeria/Benin, also influential culturally through enslavement in Cuba, in music the “head” is associated with bell sounds, not drums. The latter represent “bodies”, perhaps due to the skin. The Bongó was, on the other hand, used musically as time-keeper in early Son in Eastern Cuba (the counting head?).
In a relevant Bantu language, Lingala (DR Congo) , “bongo” means “exact”, which also raises questions, since Lingala is spoken in areas of Congo where many slaves came from.
Perhaps relatedly, the meaning of “Bongo” in the Zulu language (a southern Bantu language) is "that’s it”.
ANTELOPE
Finally, there is another known meaning of Bongo, even internationally, also prominent in Wikipedia, but here not mentioned yet. “Bongo” is the name for an animal, an African antelope (in Central, West, and parts of East Africa). Again, this can be a coincidence, but the name came supposedly from the Kele language in Gabon, a Bantu language.
A possible quite indirect link is with the fact that antelope skin was and is used for drums in surrounding African cultures, but also skin of other animals. I have played an antelope-skinned drum once (the Kpanlogo drum from Ghana is an example), but these are thinner - with a softer sound - than those used for Bongos. For bongos the skin was originally calf or goat, donkey, later water buffalo (German bongo manufacturer Meinl uses buffalo skin, for instance), producing a different (harder) sound than possible with antelope skin.
So at most there is just an indirect link with e.g. the Cuban bongó.
Even if these were mainly indirect links - but still links! - with the African Diaspora uses, the common, widespread use of the “bongo” term in Africa, makes it as term distinctly and typically African, and thereby proving the point of its use in Cuba, Jamaica, or elsewhere. Asserting an own cultural identity, through word power.
At the same time, it reflects the struggle against colonial indoctrination as well as historical – and current! – Eurocentric ideological and technological dominance.
