SENUFO, DRUM, 49", Ivory Coast, ETHIOPIAN, SHIELD, 29", DJEMBE DRUM, 22", Senegal
Photograph © John Urban
This page is a record of an exhibit that took place in 1996. The individual links below will take you to the CURRENT VERSION of the pages that formed part of that exhibit. |
"Drums and Shields" commemorates two of the major traditions
of tribal Africa. Nothing conjures up the spirit and power of Africa as
much as drums. Nothing defends or protects the people as symbolically as
their shields.
Instruments of music, ritual and communication, the drums resound with meaning
and significance to the many cultures they represent, including the Yoruba,
Akan, Fon, Senufo, Kuba, Chokwe and Bamun peoples. All hollow carved cylinders
of wood, with tightly stretched skin at one or both ends, they vary wonderfully
in size, style, complexity, use and age. All have sculptural quality, with
symbolic imagery or abstract embellishment attesting to the importance of
drums in their cultures. Some are old, their loose or damaged drum heads
end their functionality but reflect with honor on their years of use. Also
included: slit drums of the Dan and Yaka.
For drummers, we have contempoary Djembe drums from the Malinke (Guinea
and Mali) and talking drums from No. Ghana. Djembe are the goblet shaped
hand drums, ritually carved from the lenke tree, its membrane of goat skin
stretched and fastened by complex lace work. Their melodic, multi-faceted
tone is controlled by the placement of the hand strokes. Talking drums are
played with a curved stick; the pitch, imitating speech, is changed by the
placement of the thumb and by squeezing the rawhide stings with the arm.
Shields create images of tribal warriors, of Africa's traditional past.
Used for protection or ritual display, they include strong woven works of
the Kuba and Hutu, small hand shields of the Fon and tough skin shields
from Ethiopia. Relics of a time when heros wore shields, now the shields
serve to protect tradition and honor the past.
Drums and shields will show traditional drums used for music, ritual and
communication in styles from the Akan, Fon, Senufo, Yoruba, Kuba and Chokwe
peoples, plus slit drums from the Dan and Yaka. Shields for protection and
ceremony include woven works of the Kuba, Hutu and Fon and leather pieces
from Ethiopia.
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