One of my primary song circle’s favorite tunes is “Bele Mama.” It’s a simple song, easy to teach, with a groovy rhythm and satisfying melody. We love it. In our diverse group, though, we hear various meanings and possible origins of the words and melody. After much discussion, I set out to trace its origins. “Bele Mama” illustrates how songs migrate, transform, and become embedded in new meanings depending on the communities that hold them. It is precisely this fluidity that gives oral tradition its power and resilience. Starting from our own group’s story with the song, we learned it from one of our members, whose mother had adapted the melody into a custom tune for their wedding. As we sing it, like “bella mama” or “belleh mama”, I hear two interpretations. The first is in Spanish or Italian, “belle mama,” which translates to “beautiful mother.” Our group has a lot of young mothers, and we’ve often sung this tune during their pregnancies, so many of us also hear “belly mama” in playful phonetic English. After searching the internet, I found the closest version to how my group usually sings it on Mama Lisa’s blog, which is dedicated to world music. Their recording is a bit coarse; the group starts listening to each other more at about the 2-minute mark. According to her post, the song is in the Oroko language of Cameroon, and it means “call mother.” They’re singing it in the Torres Islands north of Australia. The Cameroonian origin has taken firm hold online and is repeated on [several](https://singforjoy.ca/songs/) other oral-tradition blogs and [websites](https://katesutherland.ca/track/1786283/mbele-mama). However, I don’t think it’s as straightforward as that, and to leave it at one story, I believe, minimizes some of the power of oral tradition singing. Specifically, in my experience living in rural Senegal and learning an indigenous West-African language (Pular-futaa Djallon), the colonial borders of the African continent mean little to the cultural, ethnic, and linguistic reality of peoples’ lives. The Congo and Cameroon share a significant border--also with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The [most popular recording of Mbele Mama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrUUVf9kMHs) on YouTube is sung by a Belgian vocal trio called [Keruna](https://soundcloud.com/keruna). They are singing an adaptation of an arrangement by [Anita Dualne](https://www.anitadaulne.com/video), a singer, composer, and polyphony expert known for blending traditional African vocal techniques with contemporary Western styles. I’d never heard of Anita Dualne, but was drawn in by her opus and her work bridging the musical traditions of the Congo and Belgium. While many sources cite Cameroon as the song’s origin, Anita Daulne’s adaptation and background suggest a Congolese lineage as well. Given the fluidity of culture and language across colonial-era borders, it’s likely that the song has roots across a broader Bantu-speaking region. I like the Keruna recording for its upbeat tempo, which, to me, suits the song better than a slow, free-flowing tempo like Kate [Sutherland’s recording](https://katesutherland.ca/track/1786283/mbele-mama). For a similarly “sparse” recording, there’s a version on The Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts website that plays it to a slow 4:4 tempo. This has obvious application in their context, of teaching kids wide-ranging musical skills in a broadly “western” tradition. Later in their recording, it picks up a bit. Trying to trace the tune as far back as I could, I found a recording dated 1962 archived by [Smithsonian Folkways](https://folkways.si.edu/mouangue-african-ensemble/bele-mama-call-mama/islamica-world/music/track/smithsonian) (you can see the whole song on [YouTube](https://youtu.be/qmKtvFs091o)). It’s a compilation album produced by Monitor Records featuring music from different regions--they have Bele Mama listed as “Music of Cameroon.” This version expresses that “west-african” rhythmic feel: 3:2 polyrythms, cross-rhythmic texture, cyclical groove, syncopation, call-and-response. In my view, the song should be sung with as many of these elements as possible, in respect to its origins as a distinctly West-African tune. In terms of the song, what’s clear is that: 1. It has a strong Cameroonian/Congolese origin. Perhaps better phrased as having roots in the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family, a term that spans colonial boundaries and might better capture the geographic, cultural, and linguistic heritage of the song. 2. Bele Mama is a very influential and vital song in modern singing that’s been sung and embraced the world over--Canada, Belgium, Australia, Papua New Guinea, South India, and more, I’m sure. My research also confirms some of the core tenets of modern oral tradition singing: - That songs have a life of their own. They live in and through communities as they’re sung. - The good songs morph and adapt to the needs of specific communities. - That learning and embracing the full and varied stories of the songs we sing--as we receive them--is essential. You can’t ever be perfect; it’s the telling of the individual story that matters. Sing on, my friends.