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From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Rorogwela" is a musical composition sung by Afunakwa, a Northern Malaita woman. This lullaby was used as a vocal sample in a 1992 single "Sweet Lullaby" by the French electronica duo Deep Forest, becoming a worldwide hit, but also causing some controversy over perceived "pillaging" of the world music heritage by Western musicians.
The lyrics refer to a young orphan being comforted by his older brother despite the loss of their parents. The lyrics to Rorogwela translate to: Young brother, young brother, be quiet You are crying, but our father has left us He has gone to the place of the dead To protect the living, to protect the orphan child
The song was first recorded in 1969/1970, by ethnomusicologist Hugo Zemp. He recorded a number of local songs which were released on an LP in 1973, as a part of the UNESCO Musical Sources collection.
A lesser-known use of the song is in the track "Death Lullaby" by "Rorogwela". The artist (whose identity is not certain) obviously took the name from the sample used. As opposed to Deep Forest's track, "Death Lullaby" is a harsh noise song with elements of "Rorogwela" used towards the end. The track appears on Susan Lawly's compilation album, Extreme Music From Africa.
In 2005, the song gained renewed exposure when it was featured in Matt Harding's Where the Hell is Matt? viral video. The video featured the Nature's Dancing 7" Mix of the song. In 2008, Harding traveled to the Solomons island of Malaita to try to find Afunakwa, the woman who is thought to be the performer of "Rorogwela" on Zemp's recording. According to Harding's follow-up video Where the Hell is Afunakwa?, Afunakwa had died in 1998.
The song was sampled by Moby in his track Flying Foxes from Play: The B Sides.
The saxophonist Jan Garbarek recorded his own instrumental arrangement of the song on his album "Visible World" (1995), with the title "Pygmy Lullaby". In the CD cover it is erroneously stated that the melody is African.
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