The talking drum ... Beyond music, entertainment
A talking drum
Akintayo Abodunrin examines the origin, functions and significance of the talking drum, erroneously believed to be just a musical instrument in this piece.
OF course, it is
musical instrument majority of juju, fuji and other musicians like Majek Fashek use,” said Olaolu Adeyemo, an undergraduate student of Psychology at the University of Ibadan in response to the question: What are the functions of the talking drum?
Interestingly, Adeyemo is not alone in believing that the talking drum, which has a cylindrical shape and is made from goat skin, hard wood and a leather strap for the Ayan’s ( player, or as more common, drummer) shoulder is basically a musical instrument.
Others like Ope Ayeleso, Akinola Akinrintoyo and Gabriel Olaokun, also hold this view. Perhaps due to modernity and the fact that the talking drum is now most visible at social occasions, a significant number of the present generation believe that the talking drum is just a musical instrument for entertainment purposes.
And although it is indeed a musical instrument, the talking drum is a significant cultural device with several other functions in Yorubaland.
“The talking drum is an important cultural evolution of the Yoruba people. When you say talking drum, what comes to peoples’ minds is a musical instrument people dance to. But it is not so. It was used as a means of conveying messages over short and long distances in the past,” began his royal majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, on the significance and function of the talking drum.
Oba Adeyemi continues: “For an Oba, like the Alaafin of Oyo, the palace life, administration and history will not be complete without the talking drum. The talking drum wakes the Alaafin up early in the morning, around 5.00a.m. And it starts with the recital of the oriki (cognomen) of past Alaafins, telling the incumbent Alaafin the challenges that faced the past Obas, how they overcame the challenges and the methods they used. The drummer then proceeds to recite the praise song of each Alaafin and the particular drum and dance step of that particular Alaafin during his reign.
“Also, as Yorubas, our history and oral tradition were handed down by non-literate people. So, this is an important instrument useful in learning oral history as well as the history of different lineages. For example, Oyo metropolis has several quarters; the Bashorun, Oyo Mesi, Agbaakin, Samu, Alapini, Lagunna and Asipa quarters. These large quarters also have subdivisions and drummers are able to identify each lineage and recite their oriki with the drum.
“Furthermore, talking drum serves as energizer for the Alaafin. Drummers come out with it in the morning and say ‘Adeyemi, Olayiwola, dide o bo sokoto. Enikan i fi ise igbonse ran omo eni, dide o bo sokoto’. That is: Alaafin, wake up and gather your loin clothes. The responsibility assigned to you by tradition and your people cannot be delegated to any other person.
“Again, when you are coming to the palace, the drummers will beat the talking drum to inform me of your presence, to let me know if I will give the visitor audience or not. In war, it is used to energize the soldiers and in periods of mourning, it is used to console the bereaved,” Oba Adeyemi expatiates.
The academic and dramatist, Professor Akinwumi Isola, equally affirms that the talking drum is more than a musical instrument. “The talking drum is an important aspect of our culture that must be preserved. The talking drum plays an important role in Yorubaland and if you recall Saworo Ide (a Yoruba video film produced by Tunde Kelani’s Mainframe Productions), you will see that the drum serves as the voice of the people.
“The people use it to tell leaders to remember their promises and besides, it has entertainment and aesthetic functions. It is used in passing messages, telling stories and proverbs,” the author of Oleku and other novels explains.
Professor Tunji Vidal, a musicologist at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, shares the Alaafin and Isola’s views. In a lecture delivered last August at the inauguration of the Ayan Agalu Soungobi Foundation, which is organising the forthcoming Talking Drum Festival holding in February 2008 at the palace ground in Oyo town, the academic explained that the functions of the talking drum are so diverse that they permeate all levels of Yoruba existence.
Vidal said the talking drum is the most significant Yoruba instrument of musical expression as well as the most talkative of all Yoruba drums. The talking drum, he added, is a surrogate of the human voice which apart from functioning in the speech mode, functions in the music mode, dance mode, and signalling mode. Professor Vidal disclosed that during the days of intra and inter-ethnic wars, the talking drum accompanied the army to the war front and it was used to announce the commencement of war or the demise of an important personality.
An anonymous commentator, on the back of the Talking Drum Festival brochure published by the Ayan Agalu Soungobi Foundation is quoted as describing the talking drum as basic as blood to the Yoruba. The talking drum, according to the commentator, “is a monumental and unique contribution of the Yoruba to world musical heritage. It is an expressive musical instrument with the power of speech. It is one of the most varied among the world’s musical instruments; particularly in its use and application. It is an instrument equally adaptable to war and peace, celebration and lamentation, thought and feeling, it is a custodian of the rhythm of the collective soul. In fact, the talking drum and its siblings are as basic as blood to the Yoruba.”
Talking drum players of the palace of the Olubadan
of
Ibadan.
Dr. Tunde Adegbola, Executive Director, African Languages Technology Initiative (ALT-I), who apart from being an information communication theorist, is also a musician says “the talking drum in Yoruba culture is an aspect that holds many other aspects of the culture together. It is an instrument of communication; an instrument of tele-communication; a musical instrument, an instrument that lends itself as an instrument of artistic expression. It’s an entertainment instrument.
“It is used in rituals, in many functional communications. It is used in many aspects of our life. It’s a very significant instrument. It’s an instrument of war. Just like European armies will sound their bugle when they want to wake up in the morning, Yoruba talking drummers know what to say when a visitor visits the Alaafin. Even before the visitor sets his eyes on the king, the king already knows that the visitor is coming because the drummers had already heralded the visitor.”
Indeed, the talking drum, which is also found among the Hausa, Junkun and generally across West Africa, occupies a very important place in Yoruba culture. But despite its lofty place, its origin is contested. Oba Adeyemi says “the talking drum originated from Oyo. You know the Oyos are war-like people and it was used first for the Alaafin, it is his own musical outfit. Whenever he goes to war, he tries to motivate the army with it. It was also used to entertain the Alaafin, his wife, and members of the royal household but as time went on, it spread to other parts of the town.” Professor Vidal, however, has a different view.
According to him, there are two versions of the origin of the device. While one has it that the talking drum originated from Gbarigbo and subsequently spread to Oyo, another version says it originated from Oyo and later spread to other parts of Yoruba land and the world.
The Wikipedia, the on-line free encyclopedia, adds to the controversy. “Talking drums are one of the oldest instruments used by
West African griots and their history can be traced back to ancient Ghana Empire”. Two notable professional talking drum players (or drummers as they are often called) also give their opinion. David Jegede, the lead talking drum player of the musician, Yinka Ayefele, says the talking drum originated from Oyo. Although he confessed that he was still researching into the drum’s origin, he said he had so far learnt that it originated from Oyo before it spread to other parts of Yoruba land.
Seye Akinlabi, a.k.a. Osan, another master talking drummer and music graduate of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, says the drum got to Nigeria and Yorubaland from Saudi Arabia. According to him, the talking drum was used during wars, specifically during the Jihad which swept across Africa from the Middle East.
Sadly, technology, modernization and apathy are eroding the significance of the cultural instrument and subsequently, some people are no longer aware of its significance and function and can also not interprete its beat. What’s responsible for this?
Jegede blames saje (new generation musicians who play fast tempo music) musicians for peoples’ inability to do so. His words: “When all these saje musicians came on board, because they couldn’t use the drum to say proverbs like the likes of the late Yusuf Olatunji and Ayinla Omowura, and the living Obey (Evangelist Ebenezer Obey Fabiyi) and King Sunny Ade, people lost interest in what they were saying with the drum.
“Again, because majority of them are passing lewd messages with their beats, parents who could interprete the drum stopped their children from listening to it. Thus, the number of those who could interprete the talking drum’s messages started reducing. Also, because some did not really take time to learn how to beat it, they produce gibberish in the name of beating the drum. Training matters a lot and the quality of training a drummer receives, even if he comes from a family of drummers, matters a lot.”
For Akinlabi, modernization is the culprit. “You know one of the several functions of the talking drum in the past is that it was used for communication and passing messages. But as a result of advancement in modern means of communication, people no longer need to communicate with the talking drum.
“Also, some old people believe the talking drum is a device that has no relevance to them, so they don’t tell their children its place in Yoruba culture,” he says.
But except people’s consciousness about this instrument that has been adopted not only in Europe and the United States, but also by Caribbean countries is re-awakened, its significance might be lost.
“Today, rethinking and reinventing the drumming tradition is perhaps the greatest challenge before this generation,” Professor Vidal noted in his lecture, suggesting that to re-invent the talking drum in the current information communication technology (ICT) driven age, new roles must be found for it. He recommended the opening and closing of each school day with the talking drum and entertaining foreign guests with the instrument the player puts under his/her shoulder and beats with a curved stick.
The Alaafin, also, is not happy about the apathetic attitude of Yorubas to the talking drum which foreigners are daily embracing. “It will be a disaster if non-Africans come here to learn the talking drum and in future because we neglected it, they have to teach our people how to beat the talking drum,” the king warned.
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