Historically, drumming has accompanied various modes of communication, including singing, dancing, and storytelling. In western Africa, people used drums to send and receive spiritual messages, to communicate over long distances, to aid healing, and to celebrate ritual events and the change of seasons. Specific drum rhythms and their associated dances continue to have significant meaning in Africa. Drums accompany most ceremonies and social rituals—including birth, puberty, marriage, death, and burial. In many world cultures, both within and outside Africa, drums have accompanied poetry. For the Akan-speaking people of Ghana, however, drums themselves have traditionally been used as a means of transmitting poetry. On state occasions, poems were drummed to the chief and to the community as a whole. The explanation for how drums could “talk” is that many African languages are tonal. The relative tone of a word—high or low—determines its meaning. Since drums have only tone and volume as variables, they cannot produce word-for-word imitations of speech. But drum texts contain set phrases that drummers use; listeners who know the same language can recognize these phrases. Many rules governed Ashanti drummers. A drummer could never carry his own drums or teach his own son the art of drumming. Women were prohibited from touching drums. In legend, drums were instruments of great power. In one episode of the Dausi, the epic of the Soninke people, the great war drum of the Soninke was stolen by jinn (evil spirits). When the drum was recovered and struck by the hero Lagarre, Wagadu—the lost Soninke goddess—reappeared. The sacred drum of the Venda of South Africa and Zimbabwe—called Ngoma-lungundu, the Drum of the Dead—was regarded as the voice of God. The drum was brought to southern Africa by the Senzi people, who migrated from the north and became the Venda. It had belonged to the departed ancestors of the Senzi. No one except the high priest and the king was permitted to beat or even see the drum. With it, the king could perform miracles. During the Senzi migration, the drum was enclosed so that its six carriers could not see it. The king, Mwali—who had become an ancestor-god—spoke through the drum and told the carriers never to let the drum touch the ground. It fell to the ground during one stop when its carriers failed to secure it tightly enough to a tree. As punishment, Mwali sent a storm and lions that killed many people. On a second occasion, wind blew the drum over and caused it to fall to the ground. This time, enemies massacred the Senzi and captured the drum. With the help of Mwali, it was later recovered. Drums were also associated with plenty. Wantu Su, the Supreme God of the Sara of Chad and Sudan, gave his nephew a drum with a little of everything that existed in the heavens to bring to humans on Earth. Unfortunately, on his way down, the nephew dropped the drum. It broke and scattered everything it held all over the Earth.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 14:23:47 +0000
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