Drums

During orientation we were taken to an art museum. In the lobby is a coffin, intricately designed and artfully painted to resemble a sneaker. The bottom floor of that museum is dedicated to woodwork; masks, statues, and beads are piled high in the rooms. The upper floors contain cloth, statues, and paintings, colorful and whimsical and full of movement. Smiling faces, tall bodies, bootylicious curves are depicted on canvases and bright colors glow from every corner of the rooms.

Most art here in Ghana is sold in stalls on the street, by vendors walking through traffic, or in markets. Local Ghanaian men carve masks and statues of dancing women to sell in their shops. Some sell bracelets and necklaces made with handcrafted beads. Others walk around markets holding their paintings, colorful works on thick canvas-like material.

An elephant sculpture that I
bought from a stall

A simple drum bought at the Arts Center

Another outlet for artistic talent is through drum making. Ranging from keychain-sized to my size, drums are art as intricate and complex as paintings or sculptures. Some are made using one single tree trunk. Traditional Adinkra symbols are carved into the wood, giving meaning to the instrument. Animal skin is fastened tightly on top, and the drum is struck by a hand or a mallet. Skillful hands can beat out polyrhythmic songs with their drums; at drum circles up to a dozen rhythms are played at once. The primary beat in a rhythmic song is sounded by feet, by dancers stamping on the dirt ground. A well-respected position in Ghana is a Master Drummer, a man so skilled at drumming that he gives new meaning to the craft.

I have seen a Master Drummer drum once, I think. There is a nearby market called the Arts Center, where art in all forms is sold. I tend to frequent this market, despite the overwhelmingly enthusiastic and grabby vendors. On my third or fourth visit, I was with a few friends and we were all looking at beads and backpacks. We saw a Ghanaian man there whom we had met before, and he took us to his drum shop. He handcrafted drums in his workshop and sold them here. We sat down and he brought us large drums, announcing that we were going to get a lesson.

Our teacher

We began to repeat the rhythms he beat, slowly learning a thirty-second song. After we had mastered that, we asked him to play another rhythm for us. He smiled and began to drum so intensely and skillfully that it sounded as though there were at least five people playing. His hands danced across the top of the drum in entirely different patterns. Each struck a different section of the drum, sometimes venturing to tap the wooden rim. He drummed for at least twenty minutes, finishing after a finale with two men from the next stall joining in for a few beats. I don’t know if he really was a Master Drummer, but it is hard to imagine a drummer more masterful than that.

Another drummer