The monkeys race through the forest

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The monkeys race through the forest is a German folk and children's song that first appeared in the 1950s in songbooks of denominational youth groups. The authorship and date of origin of the song are unclear.

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The song is about a horde of monkeys looking for a coconut that has apparently been stolen. At the end of the song it turns out that the baby monkey has taken the coconut. Each stanza begins with a simple rhyme that usually introduces a single horde member in the search. This is immediately followed by the refrain that begins with “the whole gang of apes is roaring” . The first verse of the song reads:

The monkeys race through the forest,
one makes the other cold.
The whole gang of monkeys roars:
where is the coconut,
where is the coconut,
who stole the coconut?
Where's the coconut,
where's the coconut,
who stole the coconut?

Origin and reception

The folk song researcher Ernst Klusen assumes the emergence of singing youth groups from 1945 onwards. The song can only be found in songbooks in the early 1950s, for example in Our Journey Songs (1954), Der Turm (1954), Die Mundorgel (editions from 1956) or The Colorful Boat (1966). Over time, the song became part of the repertoire of general children's songs, and since the 1970s Die Affen rasen durch den Wald has been increasingly found in children's song books and also on music recordings for children. In a songbook from 1983, the song revised protest song The Soviets and the USA against the NATO double resolution appeared .

Gottfried Küntzel describes the song as a “horde song that tends to roar”, according to Tobias Widmaier the fact that it doesn't have to be sung nicely is the main reason for its popularity. Another reason given is that the song line “one makes the other cold” is contrary to social norms and the song therefore offers “a certain tickle”. In some versions the song has a final stanza attached to it, which is supposed to compensate for this with “And the moral of the story: Don't steal coconuts”.

The author Grada Kilomba describes in her book "Plantation Memories. Episodes of everyday Racism" projections about black people who are effective in society. One is, for example, the "primitivization", the projection as "uncivilized", wild, backward, close to nature. Another that of "animalization", the projection as wild animal, monkey, King Kong. Against the background of these chains of associations, she describes the song as a representation of colonized areas and their inhabitants from a white perspective.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klusen: On the situation of singing in the Federal Republic of Germany, Volume 2: The songs . (= Musical Folklore: Materials and Analyzes 5). Gerig, Cologne 1975. ISBN 3-87252-097-0 , p. 64.
  2. ↑ The monkeys race through the forest in the German folk song archive, Edition A
  3. ↑ The monkeys race through the forest in the German folk song archive, Edition C
  4. ↑ Gottfried Küntzel: The old songs and the young generation of students. A report . In: Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung 39. Walter de Gruyter, 1994. S. 104.
  5. ↑ Tobias Widmaier: The monkeys race through the forest (2011). In: Popular and Traditional Songs. Historical-critical song lexicon of the German Folk Song Archive
  6. ↑ The monkeys race through the forest in the German folk song archive, Edition B
  7. ↑ Grada Kilomba: Plantation Memories - Episodes of Everyday Racism - Grada Kilomba . September 18, 2008 ( archive.org [accessed March 5, 2019]).