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 …show more content…
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 …show more content…
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.
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 …show more content…
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 …show more content…
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.