ARU BO PIKKA

This page provides downloadable files related to Bole poetry and song. To download these files you nead Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Kona

Kona is a song "style" associated with certain sung verses, a rhythmic pattern, and a dance. The discussion here is based on six performances of the kona song by five different singers, all women in Potiskum and Fika, Nigeria.

• Yagana Aba: Audio recording of a capella solo performance made by Alhaji Maina Gimba in Potiskum, early 1990’s.
• Alkama Anna: Audio recording of a capella solo performance made by Alhaji Maina Gimba in Potiskum, early 1990’s.
• Unidentified singer: Audio recording of a capella solo performance made by Alhaji Maina Gimba in Potiskum, early 1990’s.
• Yagana Aba: Video recording of a capella solo performance made by Russell Schuh and Alhaji Maina Gimba in Potiskum, August 3, 2000
• Hajja Adde: Video recording of a capella soloperformance made by Russell Schuh and Alhaji Maina Gimba in Potiskum, August 3, 2000
• Zabiya Baba Data: Video and audio recording of performance with drums and dancing made by Russell Schuh and Alhaji Maina Gimba in Fika, August 22, 2000.

kona dancers and drummers, Fika	kona women's chorus, Fika

Yagana Aba	Hajja Adde	Zabiya Baba Data

Several of the versions of kona start with a verse something like, Na kona wonta did'o Tandu Adama ‘They say kona is movement of the neck, Tandu Adama’, suggesting the type of movement involved in the dance. The song is not always easy to interpret, but the main theme is adultry and dalliance, and the recurrent "protagonist" is Disa be Kawuwa 'Disa son of Kawuwa', who ends up being caught with another man's wife (see verse 13 in the sample verses below). Here are some sample verses from the song as sung by Alkama Anna:

As this sample shows, the kona song is divided into two-line verses. In all our recorded versions, women singing alone sing one verse right after the other. In the video with drum accompaniment, the solo singer sings a verse, then the chorus of women "answer".

As in most African music, there is no rhyme, but there is a basic metrical or rhythmic pattern that the text of each line follows. Syllables in Bole are either "heavy" or "light". Heavy syllables consist of C + long vowel or CVC, light syllables consist of C + short vowel (C = any consonant, V = any vowel). The most common rhythmic pattern for kona lines is as follows, using line 14a above as an example line. A doubled vowel here shows a long vowel, — = heavy syllable, v = light syllable. The last syllable in a line is rhythmically heavy, even if it is actually light.

— v — v — — v —
Baa-ba Dii-sa bee Kaa-wu-wa

For a more extended discussion of kona and metrics, click on the link below for a 22 page paper in PDF format. You need Acrobat Reader to read this paper. See the link at the top of this page.

"The Metrics of a Bole Song Style, Kona" by Russell G. Schuh