Gabon Overview:
Gabon is one of the most sparsely populated countries in West Africa, and has never evolved into a pop musical powerhouse along the lines of its neighbor Cameroon. But over the years the oil-rich, equatorial nation has managed to produce a handful of significant pop stars, as well as preserve one of the continent's most important traditional musical cultures.
The true giant of Gabonese music is composer/singer/producer Pierre Akendenguรฉ , one of Africa's great musical visionaries. Akendenguรฉ has worn many hats since embarking on a musical career in the late '60sโchanson singer, protest singer, cult favorite, avant-garde composer and even cultural minister. He got his start while studying abroad in France, and built a long and storied career in the 1970s, combining Gabonese rhythms and themes with the sophisticated French pop songcraft he learned as a student at the storied Petit Conservatoire de la Chanson. Perhaps his most extraordinary achievement was his 1995 collaboration with producer Hughes de Courson, Lambarena, which set Bach's "Passion of St. John" to the accompaniment of traditional folkloric ensembles from Gabon. Always a tireless champion of the music of Gabon, today Akendenguรฉ serves as a key cultural advisor to President Omar Bongo Ondimba.
Another contemporary Gabonese star is singer, drummer and former first lady Patience Dabanyโa.k.a. Patience Marie Josephine Kama Dabanyโwho incorporates the traditional music of her Bateke people in her compositions. Dabany is the ex-wife of President Albert Bernard Bongo (now known as El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba), and as first lady (then known as Josephine Bongo), she founded and sang lead in Kounabeli (Superstars), a musical group dedicated to the Gabonese Democratic Party. In 1986 she split with her husband and began recording as a solo artist under the name Patience Dabany. Since then she has recorded several solo albums, including her debut, Levekisha, and 1997's acclaimed Nouvelle Attitude. In 2005 she re-united with Kounabeli to record a new album. Though she had briefly lived abroad in the United States, she returned to Gabon in 1997 and has been recording there ever since.
Other key Gabonese artists include the singers Oliver N'Goma and Didier Ontchanga, and guitarists Georges Oyendze, La Rose Mbadou and Sylvain Avara. In the '80s Gabon briefly became a recording destination with the opening of its first recording studio, Studio Mademba, and the first radio station dedicated to African music, Africa No. 1, and some of Africa's top talent traveled to the capital, Liberville, to record. But this heyday was short-lived, and today Gabon imports much of its pop music from abroad, with soukous, rumba, rap and reggae all being very popular.
But pop music is only half the story in Gabon, where vast stretches of equatorial forest are home to traditional, forest-dwelling people such as the Bwiti, Mitsogo and Fang peoples, whose sacred and ritual music has been the subject of much academic study in the West.
The ritual music and dance of the Bwiti has been especially studied, as part of larger studies of their syncretic belief system, which combines African animist practices with aspects of Christianity.
Bwiti ceremonies are led by a spiritual leader called an N'ganga is usually well versed in the traditional "bush medicine" of the forest peoples. These ceremonies involve ritual dance and drumming and cover all aspects of Bwiti lifeโincluding initiation ceremonies, healing ceremonies, and even funerals. Alongside the drums, the other key instrument of these ceremonies is the ngombi harp. Ceremonies usually begin at night and may last for days, sometimes fuelled by the mildly hallucinogenic iboga rootโTom Pryor
Come Little Children
Erutan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land
Of Enchantment
Come Little Children
The Time's Come To Play
Here In My Garden
Of Shadows
Follow Sweet Children
I'll Show Thee the Way
Through All The Pain And
The Sorrow
Weep Not Poor Children
For Life Is This Way
Murdering Beauty And
Passions
Hush Now Dear Children
It Must Be This Way
Too Weary Of Life And
Deceptions
Rest Now My Children
For Soon We'll Away
Into The Calm And
The Quiet
Come Little Children
I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land
Of Enchantment
Come Little Children
The Time's Come To Play
Here In My Garden
Of Shadows
Erutan's song "Come Little Children" is an eerie and haunting melody that seems to depict the story of a character who has the power to lure children into a land of enchantment. The character seems to want to lead children away from the pain and sorrow of life, which they believe is full of deceiving and murdering.
The opening lines of the song invite children to follow the character to a place where they can experience enchantment. The character is mysterious and promises to take the children away into the garden of shadows. As the song progresses, the character's tone seems to change, and the mood becomes darker. The lyrics suggest that the character knows the way through all the pain and sorrow and that they have a powerful solution for the children.
The song's chorus, "Come Little Children I'll take Thee Away, Into a Land Of Enchantment," is repeated throughout the song, making it clear that the character is trying to persuade the children to follow them. The lyrics seem to be a mixture of warmth, comfort, and an underlying sinister tone.
Line by Line Meaning
Come Little Children
I am inviting the young and innocent to come with me
I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land Of Enchantment
I will take you away from this mundane world to a magical place
Come Little Children, The Time's Come To Play Here In My Garden Of Shadows
Now is the time to come and have fun in my mystical garden filled with darkness and secrets
Follow Sweet Children, I'll Show Thee the Way Through All The Pain And The Sorrow
Follow me dear children as I guide you through the path of hardships and sadness
Weep Not Poor Children, For Life Is This Way Murdering Beauty And Passions
There is no need to mourn for the loss of beauty and love in life as this is the way of the world
Hush Now Dear Children It Must Be This Way Too Weary Of Life And Deceptions
Be silent now my dear children, as this is how things are meant to be. I am tired of the falsehoods of life
Rest Now My Children For Soon We'll Away Into The Calm And The Quiet
Take some rest before we embark on our journey to a peaceful and tranquil place
Come Little Children I'll Take Thee Away, Into A Land Of Enchantment
Get ready to leave with me to a world of wonder and magic
Lyrics ยฉ O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Kate Covington
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@mysteryjunkie9808
I love this. The song is about trying to take the children away to keep them innocent from all the pain and sorrows of life. A impossible task but one every parent wishes to do
@maer_chen
It always feels like it's describing death to me, come to take us 'children' away, when it's time for us to die...
That also seems to fit more with the original purpose for the movie it was written for
@gothic7821
Uh... Here in my garden of shadows? Rest now my children?
Are you sure?
... It sounds more like a lullaby before euthanasia. ๐ฌ
@chasemorrison8596
I see/hear it as the opposite. Her "garden of shadows" is life and how much it sucks and she is taking them to play in it...
@Harrypotterfan334
No. Itโs about children dying
@Harrypotterfan334
The fact it says โhush now dear children. It must be this way, weary of life and deceptionsโ it is about telling children their fate is to die and to accept that they are about to die
@thejupiter2574
I deeply fell in love with this song when it originally was sung by the pretty blonde Witch Sarah in the Disney movie Hocus Pocus it was called Sarah's theme in the movie and was a shorter version of this and then Kate Covington recorded this longer version of the same song.
@rebekahmartin8865
It wasn't originally from Hocus Pocus, they adapted the original for the film.
@cherylhylin5258
@@rebekahmartin8865 Brock Walsh wrote the original lyrics and James Horner composed the song specifically for Hocus Pocus back in 1993. These lyrics first surfaced around 2002, with the false attribute to Edgar Allen Poe. The rest is all urban legend, there is no older original, though the theme of the song has vague similarities to William Blake's The Stolen Child poem.
@kainimates
Finally one that is stereo in my headphones.