民族楽器コラで祈り歌うカトリック修道院　セネガル

【クールムッサＡＦＰ＝時事】西アフリカ・セネガルののどかな村にあるカトリック修道院で毎日７回、神をたたえる僧たちの歌声が流れる。伴奏に使われているのは、ハープに似た調べの民族楽器コラだ。（写真はコラを演奏するマリー・フィルマン神父）
　首都ダカールのすぐ東にある、クールムッサ修道院。果樹とハーブが生い茂る２５ヘクタールの敷地の一角に、修道僧たちがコラを製作する工房がある。
　クールムッサ修道院のコラ作りは、イスラム教徒が大半を占める周辺地域のみならずカトリック圏で評判だ。
　「この楽器のおかげで、神のみ言葉が栄（は）えます」と語る修道院長のオリビエマリー・サール神父（４５）。「コラは橋に似ています。何かを乗り越え、魂を高めるときに手助けしてくれます」

■コラ販売は「信仰の一環」
　２１弦の楽器コラは長い間、西アフリカの「グリオ」と呼ばれる伝統的な歌い手、語り部たちに愛用されてきた。長い棹（さお）と牛などの革を張った共鳴箱が特徴で、両手で爪弾く。
　１９６３年に同修道院を設立した仏ベネディクト会の修道士たちは、コラの音色に魅せられ、グレゴリオ聖歌の伴奏でオルガンの代わりにコラを使った。そして間もなく、コラの製作も始めた。
　「クールムッサ製のコラを世界中で見かけます」と誇らしげに語る、マリー・フィルマン神父。彼ともう一人の修道士が年間４０～５０台のコラを製作する。
　コラの販売は修道院の収入の３分の１を占める。最高品質のコラには、１台１０００ユーロ（約１３万円）ほどの値が付くといい、プロの音楽家からの需要も高い。多く売れているのは欧州だが、アフリカの他の修道院も大口の買い手だとフィルマン神父。「私たちの信仰の一環です」

■「神との調和」
　セネガル人口の９５％はイスラム教徒で、キリスト教徒はごく少数派だ。クールムッサの修道士約３５人のほとんどはセネガル人だが、ギニア、トーゴ、ベナン、カメルーン、ガボンなどアフリカ・フランス語圏から来た修道士もいる。
　「修道生活は神のおぼしめしです」と語るベルナール神父は、カメルーン出身。伊ローマで長年研さんを積んだ。修道院の選択は個人的な好みで決まるが、修道会の雑誌や刊行物に影響されることも多いと言う。
　カトリック教会の聖職者の間で、クールムッサ修道院の音楽は名高い。「私がここに来たのも音楽が決め手でした」とベルナール神父。
　修道院長のサール神父は、コラをクールムッサの象徴に据えている。その「美しい」調べが、修道生活の厳しい日課に寄り添っていると言う。「おかげで私たち自身の間に一定の調和が築かれます。そして、神との調和も」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/30-13:52）

Monks in blue-grey habits lift their hands in supplication before breaking into a chant accompanied by the singsong twang of the kora, a traditional West African harp.
It is mid-afternoon prayer in the abbey of Keur Moussa, just east of Senegal's capital Dakar, a tranquil 25-hectare complex filled with fruit trees and herb gardens -- and famed for its relationship with the kora.
Dozens of monks are singing in a modernist church under a red-and-black mural of the nativity and crucifixion in which Jesus is represented as an African.
Here, seven times a day, Benedictine friars sing the glories of God to the sound of the 21-string kora.
In the monastery's workshop, luthier-monks also craft koras that are in high demand among professional musicians.
Throughout the mostly-Muslim surrounding region, and the wider Catholic world, Keur Moussa abbey is renowned for its harps and their contribution to worship.
This is an instrument that allows the word of God to flourish, says Father Olivier-Marie Sarr, the abbot.
Standing in the shaded cloisters behind the church, a burnished-gold cross around his neck, the 45-year-old explains that using local culture brings worshippers closer to God.
The kora is like a bridge, Father Olivier says. It helps us to transcend something, to elevate the soul.
- 'Part of our worship' -
Koras have long been the instrument of choice for the traditional West African singers, storytellers and oral historians known as griots.
Plucked with two hands, the delicate and long-necked kora has a sound box made of a calabash gourd with a cowhide stretched across it.
Father Olivier recounts how the French Benedictines who founded Keur Moussa in 1963 were amazed at the sound of the instrument, which they found could replace the organ when performing Gregorian chant.
A kora workshop soon followed.
Today, the instruments produced in Keur Moussa have become a point of reference for touring musicians and prominent members of griot families.
Koras from Keur Moussa are to be found in all continents, says Brother Marie Firmin, proudly.
He and another monk produce between 40 to 50 koras a year in a small workshop dotted with half-finished instruments, woodworking equipment and religious iconography.
A layman is also employed to continue essential work when the monks are called to church.
They do good business. Kora sales account for around a third of the monastery's revenues, according to the monks, with the highest-quality models fetching around 1,000 euros ($1,200).
Brother Marie Firmin says they sell many instruments in Europe, but that other African monasteries are also big buyers.
It is part of our worship, he says.
- 'Harmony with God' -
Most of the roughly 35 monks at Keur Moussa are Senegalese, part of a small Christian minority in a country where over 95 percent of people are Muslim.
But there are also friars from across French-speaking Africa, including Guinea, Togo, Benin, Cameroon and Gabon.
Monastic life is a calling, says Brother Bernard, a Cameroonian who studied in Rome for years.
But he explains that the choice of monastery is down to personal preference, and often influenced by magazines and publications that circulate in the monastic world.
Keur Moussa is renowned among Catholic clergy for its music.
It was because of the music that I decided to come, says Brother Bernard, who speaks in the same hushed tone as many of the other monks.
Father Olivier, the abbot, cast the kora as the symbol of Keur Moussa, whose beautiful music accompanies the unrelenting routine of monastic life.
It allows us to build a certain harmony between ourselves, and harmony with God as well, he said.