5. Lɔbi sɩ̨ngi

After a separation not many women have the financial means at their disposal, or the temerity, to enter into negotiations with a worker of black magic for revenge against their successful rivals, or against the men who have deserted them. For these, there remains the institutionalised form of revenge known as lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, - literally, ‘love song’ - in essence a ceremony which employs songs of ridicule for purposes of social castigation3. In its more generalised form, lɔbi sɩ̨ngi may take place non-ceremonially when a woman who has quarrelled with another woman in her yard, goes about her work, pounding corn, or crushing peanuts, or stamping rice in a mortar, or drawing water from the well, singing songs which, though traditional in tune and words, have direct allusion to the other, the point being that all those who hear the song recognize that the singer is berating the other woman. Lɔbi sɩ̨ngi are also sung in private by men and women who live together, but these relate to personal idiosyncrasies rather than ridicule, and their point is erotic reference rather than hatred.

Lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, then, is an established form of social criticism4 by

ridicule and bears particularly on the reprehensible conduct of women. The instance we cited,1 of the man who left the woman he had lived with for many years and had gone to a younger one, would rarely call forth sufficient public sympathy to encourage the deserted woman, had she the means, to stage a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi. But should a young woman entice a man away from another about her own age, causing him to spend what money he had on gifts for her, so that he ceased to make the contributions expected of him toward the support of his wife and children, and failed to make appearance at his home at the usual times, a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi would be given by this wife to shame the other woman into giving him up. In such a case, if the deserted woman had the gift of improvisation, she herself led the singing. If not, or if she was too timid to assume the leadership in her own behalf, she hired another woman who had shown excellence at such performances to assume leadership, paying her from half a guilder to a guilder for this service.

The spectacle is staged during the day, usually in the afternoon when trade in the market is dull, and the women are free to participate and watch. The ceremony may last well into the evening, and particularly when there is moonlight, the singing may continue until eight or nine o'clock. When the day for the lɔbi sɩ̨ngi is decided upon, the woman spreads the news among her friends, and they in turn make the occasion known as they go to market or work about their yards. Sometimes the landlord of the yard where this is to be held, - the yard of the girl who is to be sung against - demands a small payment for permitting the singers and spectators to enter. Arrangements must also be made for the hiring of music. A really effective lɔbi sɩ̨ngi has as many as four or five pieces of music, - a clarinet, flute, drum (that is, a snare drum, not the African hollow-log type used in religious ceremonies), and what were described as. ‘cymbals’, which means a tambourine or any other percussion instrument which gives a similar sound. The use of the rattle, like that of the ceremonial drum, or the hard-wood bench beaten with sticks, does not occur, because these form the complex of instruments for religious ritual.

With these preliminaries cared for, and the date at hand, all those who are to participate actively come to the yard of the woman who is giving the ceremony, dressed in their best koto-yaki, and there, if the means of the hostess permit, food and drink are distributed before starting, though this is not at all essential, since the love

of the spectacle brings participants without the lure of food or presents. Early in the afternoon, then, as soon as a sufficient number of the women who had promised to come have gathered, a procession is formed. It is led by the music, and proceeds to the yard where the lɔbi sɩ̨ngi is to be given. The participants are usually followed by a crowd of men, women, and children, for whom this is entertainment to be relished. It may begin less spectacularly with people coming in small groups to the place where the lɔbi sɩ̨ngi is to be staged. Though this is less enjoyed, it is at the present time the more common way of assembling.

Arrived at their destination, they range themselves before the cabin of the woman against whom the singing is directed, with the onlookers flanking the performers, and all facing the cabin where the woman to be sung against has shut herself in. It is customary to open a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi with an improvised song to suit the occasion; that is to say, traditional music is sung, but the words are especially composed. This kind of improvisation has been discouraged in recent times because of the recourse the people sung against have had to the courts, where complaints of slander have been lodged. It is therefore found more expedient today to sing traditional songs with only sufficient change in a number of lines to point to the specific occasion to which the song refers. The pattern of singing, as in all the songs of these Negroes, is that of statement by the leader, and response from a chorus. Whatever the content of the song, whether it be that of threat, or entreaty, or excoriation, the formal way of ending the chorus is with a few dancing steps, accompanied by a disdainful lifting of the voluminous skirts in back as the steps are executed, and followed by the exclamation ‘Ha! ha!’ After the initial song, where improvisation is called for, the leader ranges through the store of well-known lɔbi sɩ̨ngi. Often an old Dutch tune, or one imported from the United States or Europe, which has achieved momentary popularity when heard in the cinema or on phonograph records,1 is utilised, and traditional words are sung to it. Similarly, an old tune is sung, and to it are fitted words that have to do with automobiles, or a flying-machine that visited Paramaribo, or other happenings of the day as these can be brought to bear, by innuendo, on the situation that is being ridiculed.

Let us illustrate with instances from the songs themselves:2

Sometimes the man, as well as the woman with whom he has gone off, is the object of ridicule, as in the following:

The next example is a song that might be sung against the man involved, or against the woman, to tell her that her new lover will be no more constant to her than he has been to the woman he has jilted. There is also the intimation that he will come back to the one who has been deserted:

Some of the songs plead with the woman to let the man go so that he may return to his wife:

Other examples of the lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, which do not fall in any of the categories we have given, follow. The first is a very old one:

Songs of the following type are sung in private by men and women. We give an example of a song sung by a man to a woman, and a woman to a man. Though the keynote of both is ridicule, it is a ridicule which is intended to heighten erotic excitement because of the obscene allusions, rather than to incite bitterness or anger.

A lɔbi sɩ̨ngi may serve yet another purpose, for a woman may give a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, with herself as the subject of it. In that case, the basic theme has neither the character of threat, ridicule, entreaty, nor obscene pleasantry, but becomes one of public confession. Let us take as an example of this, a girl who has led a promiscuous sex life and bears the reputation of a loose woman, but who has decided to turn over a new leaf. She arranges for a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, which she herself leads. The songs sung at this ceremony all bear on the theme of the evil ways she has followed, the young men she has led astray, the women she has wronged, and ends with the declaration that she is beginning a new life. Whatever the lines, the chorus following the song does not fail to include the few dancing steps of mockery, with the usual exclamation ‘Ha! Ha!’ interpolated at the whim of the singers, either after every line or following any especially appropriate line. Such a public confession having been held, however, the community considers the woman cleansed, and socially respectable until such time as she returns to her former ways of life. An example of the key-note song of such a public confession follows:

In this discussion of lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, we have indicated that in its institutional form, it is a factor which governs relationships between woman and woman, and which has to do with social criticism of women by women. Though in its external aspects this holds without exception, a man can, nevertheless, be avenged on a woman who has left him for another, by arranging and paying for a lɔbi sɩ̨ngi to be performed before her house. The actual staging of such a ceremony, however, is carried out by a woman, the man asking a sister or another member of his immediate maternal family to arrange the details. In such a case, his own role is restricted to that of onlooker.

In all instances of lɔbi sɩ̨ngi, except those where confession is the point of the singing, the woman against whom the singing is directed remains in her cabin and does not come out until the crowd has dispersed, and while the castigation of her deeds goes on; ‘She is too shamed. She cries all the time.’ The curbing of free improvisation of which we spoke before has, however, had the effect of reducing the urge to stage these spectacles, since the traditional songs of generalised ridicule that must be used today have not the force of social castigation that songs specially composed to meet the occasion in hand have, - songs identified exclusively with the one sung against, and remembered and sung for a long time afterwards further to shame the woman.

A woman, then, whose husband has been taken from her can have recourse to lɔbi sɩ̨ngi to avenge herself, but no institutionalised way of revenge, except as pointed out, by indirection, is available to the man whose wife has left him for another. Recourse to force would result in a jail sentence, and that force is not employed sufficiently to attract the attention of the police authorities, at least, is attested by the extent to which the people of Paramaribo are law-abiding.1 A man who is intent on revenge can, and, it is said at times does, resort to magic. But, in a city like Paramaribo, where a large excess of women over men exists, it is not strange that we do not find many incidents where a man feels forced to take such measures. If a wife does leave her husband, it is not

difficult for him to find someone to take her place, and the attempt to harm the seducer, or render the woman infertile by recourse to magical means occurs, therefore, only in exceptional cases.