Baka ChildrenGlobal Music Exchange was founded after Martin Cradick and Su Hart's first visit to the Baka in the Cameroon rainforest in 1992. Initially formed to distribute money earned from recordings of Baka music, the charity (nicknamed "One Heart" by the Baka women) has undertaken various projects each instigated after lengthy discussions with the Baka population whos music was recorded.

In the years since Su & Martin first arrived many changes to their lives have taken place. Electricity came to the nearest town, Moloundu at the end of the 1990's and with it television, music in the bars and a greater awareness of what life might be like outside the forest.

Listen to their music HERE

Global Music Exchange's work in Cameroon has included the following:

  • providing ID cards for the Baka people, thus protecting their human rights
  • distribution of basic necessities
  • establishing a Music House - Baka Cultural Centre - around which a Baka village known locally as "Gbiné" has grown
  • recording and sale of their music thus raising funds for both individual musicians and the community as a whole
  • basic medicine and the building of a small medical centre at Gbiné
  • involvement of local NGOs to help them understand their human rights

The Baka wish to develop :

  • good use of the Music House
  • capacity building: new-life skills, helping them to make informed choices
  • a medical centre that practices both Western and forest medicine
  • the release in Cameroon of their music to raise their status as musicians and provide a way to earn a living
  • the promotion and protection of the Baka way of life
Baka Music House

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