The Ancestral Drum
The Drum is more than an instrument, She is a living being with her own spirit in many cultures around the world and has been used to communicate, to rebel, to celebrate, to create ecstasy and to journey to higher plains.
“In Africa, music helps people to work, to enjoy themselves, to control a bad person or a good one, to recite history, poetry, and proverbs, to celebrate a funeral or a festival, to compete with each other, to encounter their gods, to grow up, and fundamentally to be sociable in everything they do.” (Rituals of Power & Rebellion, Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, PhD)
After 1838, the freed Africans of Trinidad & Tobago who brought their carnival celebrations to the streets shared their music, their songs and dances with the drum at the very core. They were celebrating Canboulay (from the French Cannes Brulees or sugar cane burning) danced to the beat of the calendas and other rythms, practiced stick fighting and drank rum. The mastery of the spirit of the drum is key to stick fighting, transforming the sport into a ritual.
In 1881, the Canboulay riots were a direct consequence of Captain Baker’s success in quashing Canboulay in 1880. “Baker and his men lay in wait to ambush the bands as they began their parade at midnight. Special effort was made by stickband supporters to lay down broken stones for ammunition against the police.” (Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso, John Cowley)
African celebrations were not considered proper enough with dances seen as vulgar by the upper class; the mass of ‘negroes’ empowered by the songs and the drum was a scary sight for the ruling white minority especially after emancipation.
After the rioting and the failure to stop Canboulay, in 1884, the authorities allowed a restricted celebration but banned what they saw as the source of evil: the drums.
The Africans then turned to using different sizes of bamboos and created groups, orchestras of tamboo bamboos (from the French tambour for drum) to accompany the stick fighters but these too were banned and in 1937, reappeared transformed into bands with tins and oil drums. It was the birth of what became the steelpan, Trinidad & Tobago national instrument.
African religious practices like Shango were also forbidden and driven underground except in districts where the people were openly defiant of the drumming ban.
The forbidden drums survived to instill their spirit in the very heart of the steelpan, where the drumbeat and heartbeat are inseparable.
“In Africa, music helps people to work, to enjoy themselves, to control a bad person or a good one, to recite history, poetry, and proverbs, to celebrate a funeral or a festival, to compete with each other, to encounter their gods, to grow up, and fundamentally to be sociable in everything they do.” (Rituals of Power & Rebellion, Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, PhD)
After 1838, the freed Africans of Trinidad & Tobago who brought their carnival celebrations to the streets shared their music, their songs and dances with the drum at the very core. They were celebrating Canboulay (from the French Cannes Brulees or sugar cane burning) danced to the beat of the calendas and other rythms, practiced stick fighting and drank rum. The mastery of the spirit of the drum is key to stick fighting, transforming the sport into a ritual.
In 1881, the Canboulay riots were a direct consequence of Captain Baker’s success in quashing Canboulay in 1880. “Baker and his men lay in wait to ambush the bands as they began their parade at midnight. Special effort was made by stickband supporters to lay down broken stones for ammunition against the police.” (Carnival, Canboulay and Calypso, John Cowley)
African celebrations were not considered proper enough with dances seen as vulgar by the upper class; the mass of ‘negroes’ empowered by the songs and the drum was a scary sight for the ruling white minority especially after emancipation.
After the rioting and the failure to stop Canboulay, in 1884, the authorities allowed a restricted celebration but banned what they saw as the source of evil: the drums.
The Africans then turned to using different sizes of bamboos and created groups, orchestras of tamboo bamboos (from the French tambour for drum) to accompany the stick fighters but these too were banned and in 1937, reappeared transformed into bands with tins and oil drums. It was the birth of what became the steelpan, Trinidad & Tobago national instrument.
African religious practices like Shango were also forbidden and driven underground except in districts where the people were openly defiant of the drumming ban.
The forbidden drums survived to instill their spirit in the very heart of the steelpan, where the drumbeat and heartbeat are inseparable.