Frank Figueroa on Afro-Caribbean percussion instruments

Latin Beat Magazine, Nov, 2002

Afro-Caribbean music, more than any other music, is characterized by percussion. Percussion instruments are used more prominently in its execution than in any other music. The treasure chest of Caribbean rhythms was enriched by the contributions of three continents. As a result, today's Antillean music beat is produced by beating, shaking, rattling, clapping, and scraping devices that originated among Europeans, Africans and the American indigenous people. Since percussion instruments are the key element in Afro-Caribbean music, a precise definition of the term is in order before we proceed. The Harvard Dictionary of Music defines percussion instruments as follows:

   The generic name for instruments that are sounded by shaking or striking
   one object with another. In the general classification of instruments they
   are divided into two categories, membranophones and idiophones.
   Membranophones are instruments in which a stretched skin is the
   sound-producing agent. Idiophones are instruments that consist simply of
   elastic material (metal, wood) capable of producing sound.

Percussion instruments are probably the oldest of all musical instruments. As primitive man learned to make tools to meet his needs, he also learned to make percussion instruments. From the beginning, percussion instruments were considered sacred and magical; they were associated with religious and healing rites. In many cases only chosen individuals were allowed to play these instruments. The players were often priests or shamen; they used the percussion instruments to drive away evil spirits and to cure sickness. It is interesting to note that today's physicians are rediscovering the healing power of music.

Without fear of overstatement, it can be said that African culture has provided Caribbean music with the majority of its rhythm instruments. In a continent where rhythm is king, every object is a potential percussion instrument.

Perhaps the first African percussion instruments were two sticks that were struck against each other. Later, sonorous tablets were developed and in time, several of these were strung together and the African marimba sansa or mbila was born. Before they invented membranophone percussion instruments, Africans used tree trunks as drums. They cut an opening into a hollowed-out trunk to provide a sound hole and then beat on the surface with hardwood sticks. The sound produced could be heard miles away. These drums were used for communication with other tribes and are known as African slit drums.

Eventually, animal skins were stretched out over an enclosed space or a hollow vessel and the more conventional drums emerged. One of the first drums produced by the Africans was the tabor, which eventually became known as the tambour. It is interesting to note that the word in Spanish for drum is tambor. The tabor was a small drum played with the right hand while the left hand fingered a 3-hole flute. The following are some of the percussion instruments originated by African cultures and that eventually were transplanted in the Caribbean.

The Yorubas, also known in Cuba as lucumis, developed in their home continent percussion instruments such as the batá and the abwe drums, the chekeré or güiros and the bembé drums. These instruments are all part of the iyesá family of drums. They also produced a large number of jingles and metallic disks, agogo bells and atcherés. Batá is a Yoruba word meaning "drum." The term is used to refer to a set of three drums named okónkolo, itótele, and iyá. Their main function is to honor the orishas. The musicians authorized to play the batá drums are called olubatás or omoaños.

Among the Bantú people--referred to in Cuba as the Congos--the most important drum group was the makuta. These drums were considered persons and given individual names. They had to be fed such fare as sacrificed roosters, Guinea pepper, oil palm butter, liquor, and tobacco smoke. The Bantus also invented a small bell called ngunga and a maraca or shaker known as nsansi. Another of their creations was the kinfuiti, a small drum that produced a guttural sound that allegedly attracted the spirits of the dead. This same culture produced the three drums known collectively as ngoma drums. They were the precursors of the modern conga drums.

The Calabar or Carabalí nation developed a significant variety of percussion instruments. They fall into two categories, symbolic and musical. The musical drums are bonkó enehemiyá, encomo obiapá, encomo kuchí yeremá and the encomo binkomé. The ekue drum may be considered both symbolic and musical. It is considered the most important drum in the rituals of the Calabar people. It is a talking drum used to communicate with people and spirits. Other symbolic drums of this culture are the ekueñón, the enkríkamo, the empego and the seseribó. In addition, the Calabar people created the ekón, a forerunner of the cowbell, and the erikundí--a shaker made from basket weave. Descendants of the Calabars formed the Abakuá Secret Society in Cuba, this group is also known as the ñañigos.