
Developed and used by
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
s living in
forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
ed areas, drums served as an early form of long-distance
communication
Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
, and were used during
ceremonial
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin .
Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...
and
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
functions.
Types
Talking drum
One is the
Talking drum. While the tone and articulation of this type of
hourglass-shaped instrument can be finely controlled, it cannot be heard at distances beyond a gathering or market-place, and it is primarily used in ceremonial settings. Ceremonial functions could include dance, rituals, story-telling and communication of points of order.
Some of the groups of variations of the talking drum among West African ethnic groups:
*Tama (
Wolof of
Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
)
*Gan gan, Dun Dun (
Yoruba of
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
and eastern
Benin
Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...
)
*Dondo (
Akan of central Ghana and
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...
)
*Lunna (
Dagomba of northern
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
;
Mossi of
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...
)
*Kalangu (
Hausa of northern
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
,
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
, northern
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
,
Benin
Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...
and
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
)
*Doodo (
Songhai and
Zarma of
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
,
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...
, and
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
)
In the 20th century the talking drums have become a part of popular
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
in West Africa, especially in the music genres of
Jùjú (Nigeria) and
Mbalax
Mbalax (or mbalakh) is the urban dance music of Senegal, Mauritania and the Gambia. The musical style is rooted in the indigenous instrumental and vocal styles accompanied by polyrhythmic sabar drumming of the Wolof, a social identity that incl ...
(Senegal).
Slit gongs
Message drums, or more properly
slit gongs, with hollow chambers and long, narrow openings that
resonate when struck, are larger all-wood instruments hollowed out from a single log. Slit-log drums are common in the drum communication systems of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, where they are known in
Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin ( ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student's Handbook'', Edinburgh ; ), often referred to by English speakers as New Guinea Pidgin or simply Pidgin, is an English-based creole languages, English creole language spoken throughou ...
as ''garamut''. Variations in the thickness of the walls give varying tones when struck by the heavy wooden
drum sticks. While some are simple and utilitarian, they can also be highly elaborate works of sculpture while still retaining their function.
A long slit is cut in one side of a log, then it is hollowed out through the slit, leaving lips (wooden ledges) on each side of the opening. Using a larger log enables a louder sound that can be heard over longer distances. By hollowing more under one lip and less under the other, the drum can be
tuned to produce two different
notes, a lower and a higher one. The drum's lips are hit with sticks, beating out
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...
s of high and low notes. Small stands are often placed under each end of the drum to keep it off the ground and let it vibrate more freely.
Under ideal conditions, the sound can be understood at ,
but interesting messages usually get relayed on by the next village. Drums used by the
Bulu people of Cameroon might be heard as far away as 10 to 15 miles at night, compared to three to four during daytime.
Cambarysu
The
Catuquinaru tribe of Brazil reportedly used a drum called the
cambarysu to send vibrations through the ground to other cambarysus up to 1.5 km away.
[''Prometheus: Illustrierte Wochenschrift über die Fortschritte'', volume 20 (1908)][Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, ''Il "Cambarysú": telefono dei Catuquinarú dell'Amazzonia'' (1898)][''The original of the telephone''](_blank)
''Mataura Ensign'', issue 520, 13 December 1898, page 4] Some scholars expressed skepticism about the claim that it sent vibrations through the ground (rather than the air), and about the claim that it existed.
In
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
,
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
and tropical areas of America, people have used drum telegraphy for centuries to communicate over long distances. When European expeditions came into the jungles to explore, they were surprised to find that people already knew they were coming and what their intentions were. By repeating a message in turn from one nearby location to another, African drummers can transmit that message a total distance of 100 miles in about an hour.
Among the famous communication drums are the drums of
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
(see
talking drum). From regions known today as
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
and
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
they spread across West Africa, and to the
America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
during the
slave trade. There they were banned because they were being used by the slaves to communicate over long distances in a code unknown to their enslavers.
Talking drums were also used in East Africa and are described by Andreus Bauer in the 'Street of Caravans', about his time as a security guard in the Wissmann Truppe for the caravan of Charles Stokes.
What is transmitted
Drum communication methods are not languages in their own right, though they can be based on spoken languages. In such cases, the sounds produced are conventionalized or idiomatic signals based on speech patterns. The drummed messages are normally very stereotyped and context-dependent; speakers of true languages have the ability to form new combinations and expressions that will immediately be understood by the listener, but that is not the case in drum communication.
In Central and East Africa, drum patterns represent the
stresses,
syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
lengths and
tone of the particular language. In
tone languages, where syllables are associated with a certain tone, some words are distinguished only by their
suprasegmental profile. Therefore, syllable drum languages can often transfer a message using the
tonal phonemes alone.
In certain languages, the pitch of each syllable is uniquely determined in relation to adjacent syllables. In these cases, messages can be transmitted as rapid beats at the same speed as speech, as the
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...
and
melody
A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...
both match the equivalent spoken utterance.
Misinterpretations can occur due to the highly ambiguous nature of the communication. The ambiguity is reduced by context effects and the use of
stock phrases. For example, in
Jabo, most stems are monosyllabic. By using a
proverb
A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...
or honorary title to create an expanded version of the name of a person, animal, or object, the indistinguishable single beat of an ordinary name can be replaced with a particular rhythmic and melodic
motif for each subject. In practice not all listeners understand all of the stock phrases; the drum language is understood only to the level of each person's immediate concern.
See also
*
Communication
Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether Intention, unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not onl ...
*
Drum
*
Gong
A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...
*
Slit drum
*
Talking drum
*
Whistled language
References
* Schmidt-Jones, C. (2005, May 24).
Message Drums'. Connexions (licensed under CC-BY 1.0)
External links
*
ttp://www.philtulga.com/Drum%20Language.html Drum Language in Ghanaian Schools
{{Telecommunications
History of telecommunications
Drums
fr:Tambour (communication)
ja:トーキングドラム