Listening to ‘talking drums’

 

That is why the African hide drum in particular, is spectacularly unique in countries like Niger, Gambia, Congo and Zimbabwe, among others.
Every home was known to have its own drum, thus making it an integral part of a people’s culture.

Back home it is known that we use drums as entertainment, a way of sending messages to the people in rural areas or some time to send messages to the next village, and there are drums for ceremonies like weddings, funerals, rain-making, war or peace and naming ceremonies.

The tradition, however, has grown and seen new dimensions.

Last weekend, Saturday Lifestyle was at Carribea Bay Hotel in Kariba and managed to catch up with Drum Café — a group of local drummers who do interactive team building through drumming. During the four day stay at the spectacular hotel where there was a regional youth camp on youth participation on elections, a workshop hosted by YETT,the team took centre stage during lunch time entertaining guests and tourists.

In an interview with this paper, Allan Kennedy, owner of the group said anyone can play a drum and it was everyone’s job to co-join all the rhythms being played at the same time to make a good tune.

“Drums are instruments that, when you hear them, you feel something inside your body, because they have this supernatural power, which goes into the body and touches your soul and wakes your spirit.

“You see, a drum beat is the same as a heartbeat. They have the same pulse, so in that way when we hear the spirit of the drum sound, we then respond immediately, and in different ways,” he explained.
Kennedy said they use the ‘djembe drum’ from Western Africa.

“Djembe drum has three basic sounds, the bass, tone, and slap, which have low, medium, and high pitch, respectively. These sounds are achieved by varying the striking technique and position. “We only specialise on djembe drum because it is the only drum that produces all types of sounds we want hence we have over 400 djembe drums,” he said.

Kennedy said Zimbabwean music is growing fast and all types of drums can relate to it.
“Remember the first thing you hear when you are born is the heart beat, same with the drum beat. It grabs the attention of anything thus its importance,” said the 25-year-old drummer.

He explained that team work involves everyone and motivates them participate through group work, making a rhythm.
“To some it may be noise, but if you pay attention you untangle the melody within you. There are some people who, upon hearing the sound of drums, cannot stand still, their whole body starts rocking to the rhythm. This is so because the spirit of the drummer and the drum becomes together as one spirit, and that person also has a high spiritual communication with the drum.

“It is this kind of symbiosis between the drummer and the instrument which creates a love which then gives a concert the power that it has when music is played,” noted Kennedy.

He said drums rhythm is an international language in any culture or traditions where they have drum rhythm in their society.
“There are other kinds of people who when they hear a drum they will immediately put their fingers into their ears, because they cannot stand the drum spirit, it makes them uncomfortable. They are afraid of their own spirit and energy they have, so the sound that comes out of the drum remains inside them,” he said.

Kennedy alluded that the only way to do is to try and enjoy the drum spirit and relax your own spirit when you are listening to the drum and the drummer spirit.
“To some when they hear a drum sound, it makes them completely relax all over the body and they will come down to earth and let their body surrender to the sound of the drum that they hear and they let the sound of the drum get into their body very deeply. It is another way of drum healing, and the best way to get drum healing is, you have to lie down and close your eyes and let only the drum spirit go into your body,” he said.

“Some of the major challenges that we have been facing is lack of exposure and appreciation from locals. Whenever we are on stage some people think it’s out of this world while others think drumming is a simple thing to do. We have managed to perform at many corporate functions and we do need more public shows,” he said.
The 10 member outfit is based in Harare and was founded two years ago with over 20 franchises across the world.

Last year, they made a hit when they played together with Black Mambazo during the Last Two Springs show held in the capital.