Drums

Drums

Drum was used as a form, of telephone to communicate with different tribes in Africa. For many Africans, music, as the conduit for communication between humans and ancestral spirits, has substantial healing qualities. For example, the Shambaa people of the Usambara Mountains in northeastern Tanzania refer to nguvu as a force of health, Wellness, and power that is obtained through ugbanga, which is considered a song, a prayer, a spirit, a way of life—of healing. It is through music and ritual that ughanga is called into being. In northern Malawi, the Tumbuka-speaking people believe that music, such as the sound of the drum beat, the clap of the hands, and the clank of metal objects, is the link that allows patient, healer, and spirit to connect, and it is this connection that plays a significant part in bringing about healing (Martins, 2007).

In warfare soldiers used drum to fear their enemy. The drum is the musical instrument most commonly associated with Africa. Drums comprise the membranophone family of musical instruments. Membranophones produce their sound by the vibration of a stretched membrane or skin. Drums can be traced to ancient Egyptian civilization and were often depicted in Mdw Ntr (hieroglyphics) (Martins, 2007). Traditional African drums are typically made of wood, rope, twine, and a variety of animal skins (i.e., goat, cow, calf, and antelope). The perishable nature of the materials used to construct drums during antiquity inhibited their survival. The various shapes of African drums reflect their perspective categories: These include cylindrical and conical drums, barrels, hourglasses, waisted drums, goblet and footed drums, long drums, frame drums, friction drums, and kettledrums (Dagan, 2008).

For example, in West Africa, drumming facilitates ceremonies during which participants are possessed by the gods. In Akan society, a bell attached to a sacred blackened stool is used to call ...