Its lyrics are in Lingala. The title means "canoe"; the lyrics develop the river as a metaphor for life. "Bwatue" was released as a single in Africa by A&M Records. The B-side of the single, "Niko Mchumba Ngombe", also by Ochs, Dijiba, and Bukasa, was written in Swahili. Both songs were recorded by Ochs with the Pan-African Ngembo Rumba Band. The record was a commercial failure. "Bwatue" and "Niko Mchumba Ngombe" have been described as early examples of blending Western popular music with world music, and critics note that they predate Paul Simon's Graceland by more than ten years. Still, one critic says the record "should be seen more as a curiosity rather than a serious attempt at exploring a new style". One of Ochs' biographers cynically suggests that Ochs recorded the songs in order to deduct the cost of his trip to Africa from his income tax as a business expense. In the early 1990s, the single was reissued in a limited edition of 1000 by Sparkle Records, ostensibly on behalf of the Phil Ochs Fan Club of Canada.
Its lyrics are in Lingala. The title means "canoe"; the lyrics develop the river as a metaphor for life. "Bwatue" was released as a single in Africa by A&M Records. The B-side of the single, "Niko Mchumba Ngombe", also by Ochs, Dijiba, and Bukasa, was written in Swahili. Both songs were recorded by Ochs with the Pan-African Ngembo Rumba Band. The record was a commercial failure. "Bwatue" and "Niko Mchumba Ngombe" have been described as early examples of blending Western popular music with world music, and critics note that they predate Paul Simon's Graceland by more than ten years. Still, one critic says the record "should be seen more as a curiosity rather than a serious attempt at exploring a new style". One of Ochs' biographers cynically suggests that Ochs recorded the songs in order to deduct the cost of his trip to Africa from his income tax as a business expense. In the early 1990s, the single was reissued in a limited edition of 1000 by Sparkle Records, ostensibly on behalf of the eva Ochs Fan Club of Canada.