TAM-TAM

Every month when the Moon reaches his/her/its full blossoming, the cities and the villages of bush enter in effervescence. The Congolese show their joy by dances to the sound of the tom-tom.
This one, of which we are accustomed to hear the beating and that, if I dare thus to express me, rock our sleep, is an instrument as old as Africa.
On present hour, the tom-tom serves, as it always served, of accompaniment to the demonstrations choreographic of Congo. Not long ago, he/it was also the telephone that the tribes used to transmit some messages.
To our time, the voice of the tom-tom is not used anymore that in the regions moved away to distribute news.
John F. Carrington, in a beautiful survey that he/it made to this subject, described this instrument.
"The tom-tom phones Congo, it writes, is generally carved in a tree to the red, hard and resonant wood: the trunk is hollowed, an opening to the sides of unequal thickness permitting to give out the sounds by beating of hands, fists or beetles."
He/it explains us what manner then e makes the transmission of the messages: "Listen to this voice well: she/it only has two notes, one sharp and the serious other. The male voice and the female voice, say the operators of this T.S.F. African.
"How does himself can him that two notes are sufficient to send any news? For a Congolese it is comfortable to understand the voice of the tom-tom, but for the European, little informed of the dialects Congolese, the thing is more difficult. However, there are the whites that succeeded in deciphering the mysterious code and that serve to send themselves of the messages."
"Our incomprehension resides in the fact that the languages that the tom-tom "speaks" are tonal, essentially oral languages: when we try to represent them by printed characters, an essential part escapes of it to us, because the melody of the pronunciation is there as important as the vowels and the consonants."
"In these languages, a word can have several significances depending on whether his/her/its syllables are pronounced on a sharp or serious tone. For example, in dialect lokele, the word lisaka means "the swamp", or "the promise", or fish" according to the melody of pronunciation. The word liala means "a fiancée" or "a heap of trash": imagine the consequences of a confusion between the melodies of pronunciation of these last two words... "
"When the tom-tom speaks", it doesn't reproduce the vowels and the consonants of the language plain of the people, but by means of his/her/its two lips unequally thick, that give out two distinct sounds, one serious, the sharp other, it only gives the melody of the pronunciation of the words. The one that hears the first measures of a national song recognizes the whole song easily. Although it is not an exact analogy with the African tom-tom, one can say however that the Congolese who hear a melody played on the two notes of the gong remember of the same way the words on which are based the melody.
In this "language", the person, the object has a name that characterizes them. He/it is some in the same way of the administateur or the missionary.
When a white of bad character goes to a village, his/her/its arrival is announced and the following sentence is the indicative that doesn't deceive anybody: "It is not necessary to touch to the venomous caterpillar."
Let's borrow again in J.F. Carrington the tasty notations that follow: "The station transmitter of the village is often before the chief's slot. Sometimes this last crouches down before quite a small gong in his/her/its court and beats news that he/it wants to announce to the village. An experienced beater bends the immense main gong above and repeat his/her/its master's statements, all as a schoolchild who writes under the dictation."
There are also the private "gongs" and a lot of people of the village know to beat the small instruments for règler their personal business. Thus, when the spouse, starved by one work day, go back home and that his/her/its wife didn't come back again of the forest, he reminds it by means of the gong: My wife who is at the garden, - brings your feet in the village, - bring me of cassava and bananas bring me of the cool water, - because I am thirsty and... - Rush you... Rush you... "
"In central Africa, the gong can even replace the love letters. The European would hesitate before a way as public to declare his/her/its love, but recall ourselves that nothing is really deprived in Africa"
"First of all, the lover smears the beetles of a potion bought at the wizard. According to statements of our Congolese friends, this magic medicine will return words of the irresistible gong. Then he/it beats on the lips of the instrument his/her/its elegant thoughts: "
My beloved, - my heart beats furiously - like this gong, - for you, for you.
"Since the arrival of the Europeans in Congo, the gong should have adapted to the needs of the western civilization. During centuries, he/it spoke of the indigenous dugouts while saying: "The trunk of wood died by which one walks on water... ", But now word "steam" must enter in the vocabulary of the tom-tom phones: he/it will be called: "The dugout, big as the elephant, and that belongs to the European... ".
"Unfortunately, the new Congolese generation takes no interest to this ingenious method to transmit news."
For today's young people, the letters sent by the post office are worth more that the messages sung of the tom-tom. They covet the wisdom of the European and despise the knowledge of their fathers. In a lot of villages, the gongs become old and are not replaced anymore by new instruments.
He/it is unfortunately incontestable that of some years the whole poetry of the telephony in bush will have disappeared completely in nearly all Congolese regions.
Only the tom-tom of dance will resound again, before being choked him also, by the octopus of the civilization his/her/its pickup, his/her/its radios... so much less tiresome.

Extrait Extrait de la revue "Haut-Katanga" N° 39 - août 1957