Dial Afrika – Drumming-up Supporters for Eastside with ‘Drums Are Afrika’ Wed.17

Drums and the African Experience

African drums are so iconic of Africa that an African drummer is almost a stereotype. The fact is that drums have been an intrinsic part of African life for countless generations – to an extent that is probably beyond the grasp of non-Africans.

It’s generally accepted that Africa is the cradle of humanity, so it’s not unreasonable to conclude that music formed a part of the African experience before many, if not all, other civilizations were even born. Music is deeply woven into the fabric of African life, and drums are the primordial musical instruments.

Drums play an important role in every aspect of African life, including the physical, emotional and spiritual. African hand drums are played to communicate, celebrate, mourn and inspire. They’re played in times of peace and war, planting and harvesting, birth and death.

Drums have been such a large part of Africans’ daily experience for so long that drumming pulses throughout their collective unconscious. It’s in their genes. Drums are inseparable from the African culture – they help define it. So much so, that when the slave trade scattered Africans throughout the world, the love of drumming they took with them irrevocably altered the world of music.

Africa is a vast continent (covering 20.4% of the world’s land), with a current population of over one billion. Much of this population either originated or still lives in small villages, each comprising its own subculture.

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