African Talking Drum

The African Talking drum
A celebration of an identity
In my essay I want to emphasize on the importance of the African Talking drum to the people who were brought to the land of the Americas in chains, and that in those trying and horrible times,a feeling of trying to establish a level of order and dignity amongst themselves helped them establish a strong connection between the African people and their musical instruments most specifically their drums.
Deep in the African continent in Sub-Saharan as well as in Western Africa hythms, spiritual dimensions and the order of the universe are not generally separated into compartments in the mind of most people. Traditional African societies acknowledge that the drum has a spirit and character
that is clearly observable. It is believed by many African communities that voices of great ancestors are hidden inside the wood of trees so they could be accessed whenever men and women need them. African history has been maintained through an oral tradition. Everywhere, slaves strived to keep the heritage and practice of drums alive. Drums from Cameroon represent various types of African drums. Due to its many peoples and unique geographical location (on the coast, deep in the heart of Africa as well as close to the Sahara), Cameroon is sometimes seen as Africa in miniature. Drums also reflect spiritual, social, ethno-anthropological and artistic perspectives. The historical and cultural significance of drums with regard to the Transatlantic Slave Trade is noteworthy.
During the Passage, slaves were encouraged to beat the drum.
The hope was that beating the drum would keep their morale as high as possible. But upon arrival in the Americas, beating the drum was forbidden for most slaves. Slave owners were usually fearful of or could not understand the influence that beating the drum had on slaves. Nevertheless, the drum continued its journey, and accompanied black slaves everywhere they went, influencing or creating new musical and artistic genres, such as the call-and-response pattern first brought to the Americas and the rest of the world through the slave trade and now prevalent in blues, jazz, rock and roll, and hip-hop. But the influence of drums went beyond music. Drums galvanized the fighting spirit of black slaves during the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina or the New Orleans uprising. Everywhere in the Americas, African slaves celebrated their regained freedom by beating the drum. This is what happened on April 12, 1865 as the Confederates were leaving Mobile, when a group of youngsters decided to do something “African” to celebrate their regained freedom. They carved a drum, beat it and its powerful throbbing took them back home. One of them, Cudjo Lewis, said: “After dey free us, you understand me, we so glad, we makee de drum and beat it lak in de soil of em Afrika boys.”Cudjo Lewis was among the last Africans the Transatlantic Slave Trade had brought to the United States. As their drum symbolized, freedom to them was directly
linked to Africa. After the Stono Rebellion of 1739 in South Carolina -- the largest uprising of slaves in the colonies before the American Revolution – legislators there responded by banishing two forms of communication among the slaves: the mastery of reading and writing, and the mastery of "talking drums," both of which had been crucial to the capacity to rebel.For the next century and a half, access to literacy became for the slaves a hallmark of their humanity and an instrument of liberation, spiritual as well as physical.
The relation between freedom and literacy became the compelling theme of the slave narratives, the great body of printed books that ex-slaves generated to assert their common humanity with white Americans and to indict the system that had oppressed them.
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Maybe you have heard of the 2nd most well-known of the African drums, the talking drum. This drum earned its name to the pitch that it emits. The pitch can be altered so that the drum does indeed sound like it is mimicking you. This drum is still widely used today throughout the world but more so in the regions of West Africa. The talking drum, known to some as the dundun, was also used in many celebrations. This drum is much smaller than the djembe and is often worn on the person’s body.
African drums have definitely had an impact on music. Such famous acts as Paul Simon and The Grateful Dead, among others, have used the djembe. African drums are a unique drum that has its place in music history.

Sources * Carrington, J. F. (1949) The Talking Drums of Africa, Carey Kingsgate Press. * http://www.un.org