The talking drum is a drum shaped like an hourglass from West Africa. It can copy the sounds of human speech by changing its pitch and rhythm. The drum has two stretched animal skins connected by leather cords. It is usually held under the player’s arm. The player adjusts the pitch by tightening or loosening the cords between their arm and body.
In the 18th century, players used different drum tones to send messages, such as news about ceremonies or commands, over distances of 4–5 miles (6.4–8.0 km). A skilled player can play full sentences. Most talking drums sound like a person humming when played.
Other hourglass-shaped drums are found in Asia, but they are not used to copy speech. However, the idakka is used to copy singing.
Five types of dùndún pressure drums from the Yoruba people, along with the atumpan and fontomfrom of the Asante (Ashanti), are especially important. These drums can send messages up to 20 miles (32 km), and other drummers help pass the messages along, spreading news quickly.
History
Hourglass-shaped talking drums are among the oldest musical instruments used by West African griots. Their history can be traced back to the Bono people, Yoruba people, the Ghana Empire, and the Hausa people. The Yoruba people of southwestern Nigeria and Benin, as well as the Dagomba of northern Ghana, have developed an advanced style of griot music that focuses on the talking drum.
Many types of talking drums have changed over time, but most share the same basic construction. Other shapes, such as the Dunan and Fontomfrom, also appeared and were given special names. These drums are mainly found in the current borders of West Africa, with some exceptions in northern Cameroon and western Chad. They are also found in areas where people from West African groups, like the Kanuri, Djerma, Fulani, and Hausa, live.
In Senegalese and Gambian history, the tama drum (called "Woong" in the Serer language) was used by the Serer people in a tradition involving boys who had not yet been circumcised. This tradition is also known as "Xaat." The tama drum has religious meaning for the Serer people, a tradition that existed before the Ghana Empire.
In the Xaat tradition, the tama is the fourth drum in a group of four drums. The other drums include the Perngel, Lamb, Qiin, and Tama.
Historically, the tama drum, like the Serer junjung, was played by griots of Senegambian kings during special events, such as wars, when kings needed to speak to their people, or during important moments in Serer culture, such as calls for bravery. Examples include the 19th-century attack at Tahompa and the Battle of Naoudourou, where Serers chose to die rather than be conquered by Muslim forces. In Serer religion, dying in such situations is allowed if it follows the principle of "Jom," which means "honor."
Ayangalu is believed to have been the first Yoruba drummer. After his death, he was made a god and is now considered one of the Orishas. Yoruba followers believe he is the protective spirit of all drummers and inspires them to play well. The word "Ayan" means "drummer" in Yoruba, which is why some family names, like Ayanbisi, Ayangbade, Ayantunde, and Ayanwande, include the prefix "Ayan." This shows that these families are responsible for passing down the traditions of Ayangalu.
In the 20th century, the talking drum became part of popular music in West Africa. It is used in Senegalese Mbalax music and in Nigerian Fuji and Jùjú music, where it is called a "dùndún." This should not be confused with the dundun bass drum used by the Mandé peoples.
The talking drum is also used in ceremonies, such as weddings, funerals, and private events. It is a common instrument in African music bands.
Playing technique
The pitch of the drum is changed to copy the tone patterns of speech. This is done by adjusting the tightness of the drumhead. The two drumheads are connected by a single cord that controls their tension. The middle part of the drum is held between the player’s arm and body. When the player squeezes the drum, the drumhead tightens, creating a higher pitch. When the drum is relaxed, the pitch is lower. This allows the drum to change pitch during a single beat, making a sound that wavers. The drum can copy the pitch, loudness, and rhythm of speech, but it cannot copy the sounds of vowels or consonants.
Europeans first noticed the use of talking drums in the early 1700s. These drums could send detailed messages between villages faster than a person riding a horse. In the 1800s, a missionary named Roger T. Clarke noted that the drum signals matched the tones of syllables in traditional and poetic phrases.
Many African languages use tone to change the meaning of words. For example, the Yoruba language has three main tones: low, medium, and high, similar to musical notes do, re, and mi. Different ways of using these tones help send messages. The same system of three tones and their variations is used in Yoruba music and culture. However, the Serer and Senegambian languages are not tonal, unlike most other Niger-Congo languages.
The challenge was to send complex messages using only tone, without vowels or consonants. In 1949, an English writer named John F. Carrington explained how African drummers sent messages over long distances. They used low tones called "male" and high tones called "female." By using phrases and pauses, messages could travel up to 4–5 miles. Though this method took eight times longer than speaking, it was useful for warning villages about attacks or sharing news about events. To clarify messages, drummers added extra phrases to each short word. These phrases were not needed in speech but helped explain the main message.
For example, the message "Come back home" might be played as: "Make your feet come back the way they went, make your legs come back the way they went, plant your feet and your legs below, in the village which belongs to us." Single words were translated into longer phrases. "Moon" might be played as "the Moon looks towards Earth," and "war" as "war which causes attention to ambushes."
These extra phrases helped avoid confusion. When learning to play the drum, students were taught specific phrases for each word. This made learning the drum language very difficult, and few people were willing to spend the time. The added beats helped make the meaning clearer. Interestingly, when Europeans learned how the drums worked, the drums were already being used less often in Africa. Over time, some words lost their meaning. Carrington noted that drummers sometimes confused phrases, such as mistaking the phrase for "young girl" with the one for "fishing nets."
As Finnegan explained, drum messages were not only for practical purposes. They were also used for literary forms, such as proverbs, praise poems, historical stories, and songs of mourning. In some cultures, drumming was highly developed and passed down through families. Expert drummers who knew the language and literature of the drums often worked in the courts of kings.
Details of design
The size of drums varies among different ethnic groups, but they all share a similar basic design.
The Tama drums used by the Serer, Wolof, and Mandinka peoples are known for their smaller size. These drums typically measure about 13 cm (5.1 in) in length, with a drum head diameter of approximately 7 cm (2.8 in). This design creates a higher-pitched sound compared to other talking drums of the same type.
In contrast, the Yoruba and Dagomba peoples use some of the largest talking drums in their Lunna and Dùndún ensembles. These drums usually measure between 23–38 cm (9.1–15.0 in) in length, with drum heads ranging from 10 to 18 cm (3.9 to 7.1 in) in diameter. In Yoruba talking-drum ensembles, these large drums are played together with smaller ones that are similar to the Tama, which are called Gangan in the Yoruba language.
Playing styles
The way people play drums is connected to how the drums are built and the sounds used in different languages. A clear difference in drumming styles can be heard between areas where most people speak Fulani or Mande languages and areas further east where Mande languages are not commonly spoken.
In western areas like Senegal, Gambia, western Mali, and Guinea, the main drumming style uses quick, repeated beats and short sounds made by hitting the drum with one hand and using the other hand to support the rhythm. This style matches the speech patterns of languages in these regions, which often use short, non-tonal sounds. This style is common in the music genre called Mbalax in Senegal.
In eastern areas such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, western Chad, and Nigeria, except in places where Fulani or Mande languages are spoken, drummers focus on creating long, continuous notes. They hit the drum with one hand and use the other hand to control the sound after each hit. This method creates a soft, stretchy sound that matches the complex, tonal languages spoken in these areas. This style is clearly heard in music where the talking drum is the main instrument, such as Fuji music from the Yoruba people of Nigeria.
In some cultures, people were given special drum names that could send messages to others. For example, among the Bulu people of Cameroon, names like "Even if you dress up finely, love is the only thing" or "The giant wood rat has no child, the house rat has no child" were used. Drummers would send messages by playing the recipient’s name, followed by the sender’s name and the message.