A Drummer's Testament

Chapter I-13:  How We Make Our Drums and Gungons

Craft aspects of drumming; how drums are carved; ritual obligations of drum-makers; how drums are sewn; types of skins used; varying quality of drums and skins; how drum-sticks are made; how guŋgɔŋs are made and sewn

• Supplementary material
• Paragraph outline and links
• Proverbs and sayings
• Dagbani words and other search terms

Supplementary material

Images

• carving a drum (luŋa) and drum-stick (lundoli):  gallery
• sewing a luŋa:  gallery
• sewing a guŋgɔŋ:  gallery

Contents outline and links by paragraph

Introduction

• 1.    hard work to make luŋa and guŋgɔŋ

Luŋa in Dagbon and Asante

• 2.    Dagbamba drum superior in quality to Ashanti drum (donno)
• 3.    formerly Ashantis got lunsi from Yaa-Naa; also binda (Mossi calabash drum) and dalgu; gyamadudu, donno
• 4.    Asantehene gave cola to Yaa-Naa for the drums; no charge
• 5.    in olden days, no charge; you would go to drum carver and farm for him while he made the drum
• 6.    after Asantehene’s drums were carved, Yaa-Naa would get skins from chief of butchers and send to Namo-Naa to sew the drums
• 7.    how Yaa-Naa’s prince would accompany drums to Asantehene; thirty to forty days walk; how Asantehene would receive the drums and give cola
• 8.    in modern times, Asantehene buys drums; how Alhaji Ibrahim’s brother Sumaani made drums for Asantehene
• 9.    Alhaji Ibrahim the one selling drums in Dagbon; Ashantis and others from South come to Tamale to buy drums from him. 

Dangers of carving drums

• 10.  few people carve drums because cutting trees can make people sick; example of Tampion drum carver who became mad
• 11.  different types of bad trees in Dagbon
• 12.  karga medicine to protect someone who cuts trees; obtained from kasiɣirba, people who bathe dead bodies; other uses of karga
• 13.  people who carve drums do not prosper

Cutting trees and carving drums

• 14.  three trees:  taaŋa (shea), sacrifice of milk; kpalga (violet tree), sacrifice of cowries; siɣirli (cedar mahogany), sacrifice of hen and then carve the wood in bush
• 15.  nowadays no sacrifices; reason behind the problems
• 16.  drum from a bad tree can kill a drummer who uses it; drum makers don’t live long; only three in Dagbon, at Tampion
• 17.  siɣirli the best, very hard, not common; siɣirli drums last long; John’s small drum more than hundred years old
• 18.  drum-making is hard work; four tools:  axe to cut tree, adze to make hole, cutlass to trim, korgu (curved knife) to carve and scrape; two days to make

Preparing the wood

• 19.  knife to scrape and smooth the outside and stone to smooth the  mouth
• 20.  repair holes in wood; formerly used bee’s wax, now use glue and wood dust; shea butter on the wood

Preparing the skin

• 21.  buy skins from butcher; goat skin is better than sheep; female goat has lighter skin, better sound
• 22.  skins sometimes difficult to get
• 23.  use water to soften skins, inside pot until early evening
• 24.  use korgu to scrape and clean skin, removing any meat; put back into water
• 25.  soften the skin with ashes and seeds from type of melon (yɔɣli) inside pot until next day; remove skin from pot and remove hair and wash any scent away

Sewing the skin

• 26.  split and trim reeds from mat; get type of long grass (kpari), in market and also in Dagbon near rivers
• 27.  make lun’ kuɣra, a ring to seat the head on the drum, by wrapping kpari around the cut reeds
• 28.  fit skin to ring; lundi’ sherga, the sewing string, how it is made; how the skin is sown; final cleaning

Lacing the heads

• 29.  the lundihi, the strings that hold the heads; use skin of calf, also bush antelopes (gbɛɣu, walga, kparbua, bambua, saŋkpaliŋ, kɔɣu); some are harder than others
• 30.  strings from bush animal last long; can use tanned goat skins (red) but are not strong, will dry out and break, not preferred
• 31.  making the strings:  clean and remove hair, dry, cut thin strip,  soak and roll it; dry it and soften it by rubbing on stone or ceramic; not necessary for goat skin, already soft
• 32.  finishing the drum:  smooth the mouth, fit the heads, and lace with the strings; tie with leather to seat the heads well; dry overnight

Variations among drums

• 33.  different skins affect the sound of different drums; from the tree and the wood, also from the carving; male or female, white or black; drum maker has to observe to know which type of skin for any individual drum; sometimes need to search for appropriate skin
• 34.  differences also from length of drum, length or width of neck between the two bowls, from carving, from the bowl; head is more important; some drums do not sound well
• 35.  differences from skins; light and thin usually better, but break easily; during dry season, skins become thin and break often; drums sound different in South because the air is not as dry
• 36.  lundihi affect the drum; spacing of the strings; also can dry out, cannot squeeze the drum; also affected by cold; different sound in different places
• 37.  olden days drums better craftsmanship than modern drums; drummers prefer older drums; the neck and inside are smoother and wider; sound better
• 38.  new drums change as wood dries; weak wood warps; if tree is mature, the wood will not shrink; main factor in the sound
• 39.  skins affect the sound; when drum is beaten for some time, the sound changes; drummer may not hear the sound well; spectator will hear it differently

The drumstick

• 40.  making lundoli, different trees:  puhiga (tamarind), dazuli (gardenia), kuliŋbinli, nim
• 41.  use short-handle axe (lehu) to carve sticks; make head first then carve neck
• 42.  to bend stick, put into boiling water; tie neck with rope and bend and tie
• 43.  untie rope the next day; carve handle; finish and smooth; make hole to tie leather string from neck to handle
• 44.  many sticks break when bending; younger trees are better for bending
• 45.  puhiga best; kuliŋbinli next, but too light; dazuli easy to bend, strong and heavy; nim tree frequently breaks

Sewing guŋgɔŋ

• 46.  introduction to making guŋgɔŋ; use trunk of tree
• 47.  needs somewhat thick skin:  male goat, saŋkpalin, gbɛɣu, bambua; kɔɣu too thick; use type of rope (gabga) to seat the skin
• 48.  two people to sew guŋgɔŋ; skin with hair outward over mouths; secure with rope
• 49.  guŋgɔŋ strings (gbandaa) made from bush animals or cows; thick
• 50.  turn skin over rope and use awl to punch holes; as sew the two mouths, you pull the gbandaa strings along rope to seat the skin; gbankuɣra or guŋgɔŋ kuɣra
• 51.  gbanchirga:  pieces of skin to close the sewing hole and prevent tearing
• 52.  second person on other side of guŋgɔŋ; sew from one side to another
• 53.  sew around guŋgɔŋ, then trim excess skin; make hole for string to secure cloth to hang guŋgɔŋ
• 54.  dry the guŋgɔŋ; scrape or shave the hair; tie chahirga, the small string across mouth that vibrates
• 55.  gbandarigara:  strips of leather to tie to gbandaa and tighten the mouths
• 56.  have to tighten guŋgɔŋ before beating it; if it loosens from beating, tighten it again
• 57.  guŋgɔŋ voora:  pulling the guŋgɔŋ;  if the gbandaa stretch over time, have to go around the guŋgɔŋ and pull them to tighten the skin of the mouth again

Conclusion

• 58.  transition to how a drum is beaten

Proverbs and Sayings

If you are at something today, tomorrow, and the next day, you will know what is in it.

Dagbani words and other search terms

• Chiefs and elders
• Asantehene
• Naa Mahama Bila
• Namo-Naa
• Yaa-Naa

• Musical terms
• binda  (singular:  bindihi)
• chahirga
• dalgu
• donno
• drumhead
• drumskin
• drumstrings
• gabga
• gbanchirga
• gbandaa
• gbandarigara
• gbankugra  (gbankuɣra)
• gungon  (guŋgɔŋ)
• gungons  (guŋgɔŋa)
• gungon kugra  (guŋgɔŋ kuɣra)
• gungon voora  (guŋgɔŋ voora)
• gyamadudu
• lun kugra  (lun' kuɣra)
• lundi' sherga
• lundihi
• lundoli
• lunsi
• lunga  (luŋa)
• Simpa
• twene

• Names and people
• Sumaani

• Miscellaneous terms
• adze
• bambua
• bushbuck
• calabash
• cedis
• cowries
• dazuli  [possibly Gardenia nitida Hook. or Gardenia ternifolia]
• duiker
• gbiegu  (gbɛɣu)
• harmattan
• karga
• kasigirba  (kasiɣirba)
• korgu
• kpalga  [possibly Securidaca longepedunculata Fres.]
• kparbua
• kpari
• kulinbinli  (kuliŋbinli)
• kogu  (kɔɣu)
• lehu
• lorries
• messaged
• nim
• oribi
• pesewa
• puhiga  [Tamarindus indica Linn.]
• sangkpalin  (saŋkpaliŋ)
• shea
• sigirli  (siɣirli)  [Pseudocedrela kotschyi (Schweinf.) Harms]
• taanga  (taaŋa)  [Butyrospermum parkii; a.k.a. Vitellaria paradoxa]
• walga
• waterbuck
• yogli  (yɔɣli)  [possibly Adenopus breviflorus Benth.]

• Towns and places
• Accra
• Bimbila
• Daboya
• Dagbon
• Galiwe
• Kumasi
• Lamashegu
• Nanton
• Zantani

• Cultural groups
• Ashanti
• Dagbamba
• Hausa
• Mamprusi
• Mossi
• Nanumba
• Wangara