Today I am going to continue with the ways of drumming. As we have been beating many dances, it is not everything that has been taught to us. We have used our sense and learned how to beat some of them. And so I will talk about how I started learning how to beat a drum, and the towns where I stayed, and what I gained in those towns on the part of knowing how to beat the different styles of drumming and the dances of other tribes. I know how to beat many dances, but no one showed me how to beat the dances of the tribes. And so I can beat them, but I didn't learn how to beat them.
And so today I will talk to you about the Mossi dance, how they beat it and how they dance it, and I want to talk about the Zambarima dance, the Kotokoli dance, and the Guruma dance, all of them. I have wanted to talk about all of them for some days now. I told you that we Dagbamba drummers, we beat many dances from other tribes, and today I want to talk about them and about how I didn't go to anyone to teach me how to beat them. And I didn't go to lie by someone to teach me. There is someone who will want to learn something from someone, and he will go and lie by someone's legs and tell the fellow to teach him. I didn't do that to learn these dances. And the way I beat them, too, I beat them without mistakes. I will beat them and no one will find my fault.
Why is it that I don't make mistakes? Someone will beat something, and you will go and hear it, and you will come and change it. And as you have changed it, have you not lost it? All these dances I will tell you about, I won't beat any of them and change anything in them. I will beat them correctly. And all this is coming from my traveling and from the hearing of my ears, and it is coming again from my sense: that has showed me all of it. And so I will talk to you about all this.
I have told you that when I was a small boy staying at Voggo, my heart would get up when I heard a drummer drumming. I wanted to try and be able to beat like him, too. When I was learning drumming in Dagbon here, I learned it in Voggo and Nanton and Tamale and Yendi. And I got up and traveled to the South, to Kintampo and Kumasi and Accra and Takoradi, and I learned it there. And today as I am sitting with our drumming, there are some people who were in front of me, and today I am in front of them. When I was beating the drum and I put it down and came to beat the guŋgɔŋ, there was no one in front of me on guŋgɔŋ. The reason why I was in front of all the guŋgɔŋ beaters in Dagbon was that I took the way the drummers in the South beat it. There are two ways we beat guŋgɔŋ: there is the Dagbamba way and the Southern way. Ʒɛm, Baŋgumaŋa, Naɣbiɛɣu, Naanigoo, Tibaŋ taba, Ʒim Taai Kurugu, Nakɔhi-waa: they are all Dagbani. But Jɛbo, Gaabitɛ, Mazadaji, Adamboli, Gbada: you can only learn these in the South, at Kumasi or Accra or Kintampo. There are many dances that we beat from the South. All these dances are names, just as our dances are names in Dagbani. There is a Hausa dance we beat, and the name is in Hausa: Waachi fuusi da yiko Allah, shee waawa, “Who becomes annoyed with God? Only a fool.” It is inside Taachi. When we are beating Taachi, we used to beat it if somebody asks for it, and anyone who wants can come out and dance it. We beat it with guŋgɔŋ and drum, and it is from the South that we heard it. We beat many names like that, and they are all from the South. If you don't go there, you cannot know all this.
I think in my heart that in the world, among all the people who beat drums, it is we Dagbamba who can beat the dances of other people. And I don't think anyone can beat the Dagbamba dance unless he learns it. Even if he learns it, he will only learn it to some extent. But as for us Dagbamba, when we are beating, any tribe's person who comes out and tells us to beat the dance of his town, we will beat it. That is why I say that we Dagbamba can beat better than others. It is only someone who doesn't know, because with our drumming, when someone doesn't know anything about it and you are beating it, the person won't know what you are beating, and your beating is useless. But if some people from some other tribe are beating their drums, and we come out and we start beating, they say, “Oh! Let's stop and look at them.” It is because when we beat, we have many types of dances.
Truly, as for our Dagbamba drumming and the dances we beat, I can say that our drumming is difficult. All those tribes who beat our type of drum, our hands are smarter than all of them. None of them can beat our beating. But we, we can beat their beating. Truly, you can see many people beating this luŋa, or this type of drum, and all the tribes have their drummers and I've seen them. I've seen the beating of the Wangaras. They cannot beat our beating. I have seen the beating of the Hausas. They cannot beat our beating. I have seen the beating of the Zambarimas. They cannot beat our beating. I have seen the Dandawa people beating drums. They cannot beat our beating. The Guruma people: they cannot beat our beating. The Gonjas: they cannot beat our beating. The Kasenas: I have seen their beating, but they cannot beat our beating. All these people: we can beat their beating. The Frafras cannot beat our beating, but we beat the Frafra dance. Even the Mossis, too: we can beat their beating, but they cannot beat our beating. And all the tribes I have called, when I am beating their dance, no one will blame me.
And even to us, our talk is surprising to us. It makes all of us wonder. How is it that we can beat their beating, and none of them can beat ours? If any tribe is beating and one of us should come and stand there, if their drummer should knock once, we will all know how to beat it. It was just recently some Chilinsis came and met us and said we should beat a certain Chilinsi dance, and we beat it. Do you see? It was only one person among us who knew it. Apart from him, none of us knew it. But he had been to the Chilinsi town, and he beat and showed us, and he showed us how to answer it. And at that place we beat it and it was correct. But the Chilinsis cannot beat our beating. If they take a Chilinsi drummer and add him to us, he will only beat some and leave others, because if he's going to beat, it will worry him.
And so we ourselves, the talk of drumming on the part of ourselves and the other tribes, it's surprising to us how we can get their beating and beat it, and they cannot beat ours. And so our beating is difficult. Before a person will beat it until he knows how to beat it correctly, it's very hard. But before we will take somebody's dance to beat and we will become lost, it's not often: we will beat it to the part we know, and they themselves will know that we know how to beat it. And so our dances, to those of us who beat, it is surprising that other people cannot learn our dances. If you look at it, you see that we and the other tribes don't enter one another, and so how do we get their dances? And if our dances are difficult, I think it is that even our Dagbani is difficult to learn, and this is why they find it difficult to learn our dances. I think that this is what has brought it. If our language were not difficult, they would know every dance of ours, but our Dagbani is difficult. Before you catch somebody's language, you have to know how to count in that language. I'm talking on the part of his tongue, and if you don't know how he counts, then you will find it difficult to hear his town's talk. You cannot even start, and before you are able to know his language, it will worry you. And so I think that it is from our language that all this comes.
And again, it is coming from our sense. As I have been showing you the sense of the Dagbamba, haven't you seen that we are very sensible? As we Dagbamba who have sense go to watch the other tribes and listen to how they beat, there are those who don't think that what we are doing has any use, and they do not come to watch the other tribes' dances. But I can say that beating the drum very well can sometimes give you a very good gift, and listening to the other tribes' dances and trying to beat them will also give you something. In Tamale here, we are two groups of drummers. Those who are with me are there, and the drummers of the Dakpɛma are there, and they also go to beat at wedding houses. But our beating is not the same. Any dance we beat will not be the same thing as with them. When my group is beating, no one will come and ask for any dance and we will not be able to beat it. It is only the white man's dance that we cannot beat, and it is because we have never seen a white man's drums. That is why we cannot beat it. If we were to see white people group themselves to stand and beat drums, then we could also beat it. And again, we don't see that Arabs are here and beating their drums. And so it is only these two groups of people that we don't see their drum-beating. But I think in my heart that if we saw their beating, then we would beat drums and you would think that we can speak their language. And so in my group, we can beat every dance. But as for the Dakpɛma's drummers, sometimes someone will ask them to beat a type of dance and they will say they don't know how to beat it. Sometimes women will ask them to beat a certain dance, and they will not be able to beat it. Sometimes someone will come out and ask for his tribe's dance, and they will not be able to beat it. Will they get? They don't travel, and they are not watching, either. There can be somebody who does not travel but he always goes to watch other tribes' dancing. Even if you don't travel to get to know different things, if you watch other dances, you can get them. And we have been doing that.
And again, it is because we Dagbamba learn how to beat our drums. When they give food for people to come and eat, those who are first will eat more than those who come last. The same thing applies to drumming. If you learn it very well, when you go anywhere, when they are beating, you will be able to hear all the differences in the drumming, and you will catch it. And so we have learned how to drum, and we take our sense and add. Learning is in the heart, and if your heart is bright, you will get what they have taught you, and as you have started your drumming like that, you will follow it and use your sense to catch many different types of beating and add to what you have learned. If you have gone and learned drumming, the one who has only come to stand and listen will not beat the same as you. Someone who is clever or who has sense will come and stand and listen to the sound and get it to his extent, and someone whose sense is not too much will come and listen several times but will not get to know the sound. But the one who has been taught, he will come and know all. And so our drumming is: you learn how to move your hand on the guŋgɔŋ and you learn how to beat the drum, and you take your sense and you take your bright heart, and you go and watch how the tribes beat. You will listen to all the drums and the whole sound, and if you like, you will ask them. That is how you will learn the different styles of drumming. And so the way we beat many different types of drumming is coming from our starting and how we learn it.
Let's take Mohi-waa, the Mossi dance, as an example. I cannot hear the Mossi language, but I can beat their dance. They beat and I come and stand and watch. When they beat tomorrow, I come and stand again. I will hear how they beat the drums and how the drums sound, and I will hear how the guŋgɔŋ cries. As we beat the Mossi dance for people, I didn't go to a Mossi town to learn it. At Kumasi, after the Ramadan, every tribe beats its beating, and every tribe's drummer beats. It is there that I heard it from the Mossis. And I followed it to Accra and learned it there. And the Yarisis were there. They are somehow inside the Mossis, and the Yarisis have many big maalams. It was in Accra that I got to know them, and I heard that they and the Mossis are one. But their dance is different and their beating is also different. They are different but they resemble one another. Someone who doesn't know, if he is going to beat it, he will group the Mossi dance and the Yarisi dance together. But they are not the same, and a drummer who doesn't know will group them.
Some time ago I was speaking to a Mossi person, and you were there when that Mossi man gave me some money. I was speaking Moore on the drum, and as I was beating it, I don't understand the Mossi language. I heard a Mossi beating the same thing, and I admired it. How the Mossi drummer was beating, my wrist was smart to catch it from him, and I got it easily but I didn't understand it. And that Mossi man I was praising also said, “Oh, this Dagbana person: he is never a Mossi man, but how is he able to beat a Mossi drum?” That is how we can do it; we Dagbamba can beat so many tribes' drumming. When they beat, I can catch it at once. If people come together to beat either Mossi or any other tribe's beating, when they come together to beat, and they beat six dances or five dances, at least I will be able to catch two. I can catch two or three. That is how I have been doing it.
For example, as for the beating of the Mossis, the crying of the guŋgɔŋ comes from the shaking of the strings. If you want to beat the Mossi guŋgɔŋ, it's good you put your left hand on the guŋgɔŋ, with the butt of your hand on the edge of the guŋgɔŋ and your fingers and palm free. You can then be swinging it and hitting it on the edge where the string is attached. You should let your hand swing according to the way the stick is beating. You will be beating the guŋgɔŋ and the sound will be very sweet and also different. There are some people who press the guŋgɔŋ with their fingers when they beat it, and it will change the sound. The Mossis make their guŋgɔŋs very small: if you take your fingers and press it, it won't sound, and so the Mossis don't press it. As they don't press, when we are going to beat their dance with our big guŋgɔŋs, we don't press very much. It's good that when you beat the Mossi dance, you only swing the palm on the guŋgɔŋ and let it knock on the edge, and you should not press it: you will see that the sound of the guŋgɔŋ will be different, and it will cry well. When I learned how to beat the Mossi guŋgɔŋ, how they were beating it was the same as how I was beating it. And how they beat the drum, that is how I also beat it. When you stand and watch someone doing some work, and you want to do that work, if he is not going to teach you and you are only going to watch him, then you can still do the work he is doing. You have to say that you will do it and it will resemble his work. If truly you are someone who watches, that is all. As it is, if I beat the Mossi dance, any Mossi sitting or standing nearby will praise me and ask me whether I have ever been to the Mossi town. And I will tell him that I am just staying here. And he will say, “Truly, you have roamed.”
There is someone who will beat the guŋgɔŋ and become old and will not know how to beat it. How the guŋgɔŋ cries is all following the different types of dances. As for the dances that you press it, those dances are there. But if you see my group beating the Mossi dance, if I take a drum or I take a guŋgɔŋ and beat it, you will see that the way I beat is different from the way they beat it. In the Mossi dance, the guŋgɔŋ is crying, and there is one drum crying, and the other drums are beating and answering. And there are many styles in it. The last time we beat it, there was only one person who knew it well, and I saw the one who was better. As the others were beating and it was not following, I did not blame them. It's just that their way of beating is quite different from the way I beat when I take the drum.
And so drumming talks are also plenty on the part of the guŋgɔŋ. When you see the one beating guŋgɔŋ swing it down and let it hang from the shoulder, that is the time when the dancers are dancing and the dance is becoming very, very interesting. They are excited within their bodies. They are doing it and they are happy, and they want to do it more. When you see the dancers dancing very seriously, the beating of the guŋgɔŋ will also increase. But not everybody bends down and lowers the guŋgɔŋ. Someone will say that when he bends down, it won't do him any good. Someone will stand up and beat the guŋgɔŋ better than someone who bends down. Someone else can bend down and beat better than someone who stands up. It is all coming from the way someone learns it, and everyone is not the same. So it is just everyone and what he has learned. When you are watching, you will be watching all this, but it is your ears you will take to know whether someone is beating it well, because it is the sound of the drum that will show you. And so drumming talks are plenty, and the guŋgɔŋ too is inside.
Yesterday we were beating Gbada, and we have many styles in it. Gbada is a dance of the Dandawas, and the Kotokolis dance it, too. The time I was at Kumasi, we used to beat it for both of those tribes. Yesterday Fusein Alhassan Jeblin was beating the guŋgɔŋ, and he was making different styles. As for Fuseini Alhassan, I have told you that the difference between Fuseini and the others who beat guŋgɔŋ is always there. Truly, Fuseini can beat the guŋgɔŋ in Takai very well and strongly, and he knows all the changes and styles in Takai. And when Fuseini was beating Gbada, he was beating all the styles, and there was no mixing. Yesterday too, you saw how Adambila was beating Gbada yesterday on the drum. Adam was bringing styles from Nyaɣboli into the beating, and they were following inside the beating. Truly, you can take the styles from Nyaɣboli and add them into Gbada, and they will be following, but Nyaɣboli is a Dagbamba dance, and we beat it in Takai, and Baamaaya people also beat it. But Nyaɣboli and Gbada are not the same. As for Nyaɣboli, Adam beats it well, but he couldn't beat the styles of Gbada because he doesn't know them. He doesn't travel, and he doesn't ask, and that is why. And so there is somebody who will only beat one part: it is not his fault; it is because he didn't travel, and he didn't learn it. Everyone learns to the extent he can learn.
And so if you want to learn work, you have to try your best to learn it well, and it is good for you to travel out to towns. As I am sitting, I don't know the Kotokoli town. The Kotokolis are in Togo, and Sokode is their town. We don't know there, but we beat their dances. Gaabitɛ Zamanduniya is not the only Kotokoli dance we beat. Amajiro is also there, and Amajiro is inside Zamanduniya: when they are beating Zamanduniya and women are dancing, Amajiro can come inside. This Mazadaji we are beating is a Kotokoli dance. This Jɛbo we have been beating is a Kotokoli dance, but we have been beating it for Dagbamba, too. The Kotokolis call it Kpakpatuli Jɛbo. Have you heard? If you don't ask, will you know all this? And so Jɛbo, Gaabitɛ Zamanduniya, Mazadaji, and Adamboli: all of them are Kotokoli dances, and we beat them. But if the Kotokolis come here, they will not know how to beat our dances. They will only beat their dances. But if we also come and join them at the gathering place, we will beat their dances. Sometimes when I take the guŋgɔŋ and start beating, a Kotokoli man will come and ask me whether I know the Kotokoli town. I don't know what the drumming means, because I have not asked them. And as I am beating, I have not asked them how to beat it, but I think in my heart that my sense and my hand are doing what they beat. Sometimes Kotokoli people used to think that I understand the Kotokoli language because of the way I beat the drum. Truly, I don't know their language. But the way my hand is soft for the Kotokoli drumming, I will beat their type of drumming so seriously that a Kotokoli person may think I understand. But it is only the sense of my watching. It isn't that I understand their language; it is only my hand that is talking. And so it isn't that the way we beat it, we can translate it into words. We only watch. What we hear, we can take it into our heads, and our wrists can also take it.
We were at Accra one time and they sent us to a village called Damborno, near Akwatia and Asamankese. The town was full of Kotokolis because they sell cola there, and the Kotokolis like cola towns. When we arrived, there was a Kotokoli drummer and another Kotokoli beating guŋgɔŋ. It was evening when we went to beat, and they put chairs for us. All the women of the town gathered, and they said we should praise their Magaaʒia. This Magaaʒia was a chief's daughter from the Kotokoli's town, and we beat Jɛbo for her. When you hear us beating Jɛbo for someone, it means that person is a chief's child: that is what we beat whether the person is a man or a woman. This Jɛbo is something for Kotokoli chiefs. And so the Kotokoli drummer started Jɛbo, and we were also beating and answering and following them. Then the guŋgɔŋ started beating, and I also started following him with my guŋgɔŋ. He was beating it very fast because it is his town's dance, and I was following him slowly.
Then the woman came out and raised her hands, and we stopped beating. She told us we should keep quiet. And she told us that we should beat Gaabitɛ, and she said, “If you are someone who travels and moves around, if you reach home and your wife is there, what will you do? You will climb her till daybreak. And so today, this is our dance. Nothing is going to mix with us again. And so you should beat, and if you drummers are going to eat, it won't be until tomorrow.” And we continued beating. The Kotokoli drummer took the guŋgɔŋ and turned it, and I let him start, and I was following him. And I had also heard some people beating the dance, and when he was one way, I was beating another and bringing the styles I had heard. And then the woman brought a veil and tied it around my neck and asked, “Are you a Kotokoli?” And everybody stopped beating, and the Kotokolis were saying, “It's true, maybe he can understand the Kotokoli language.” And they asked me “Have you ever gone to Sokode?” And I said I don't know there. And they said, “The way you are beating the guŋgɔŋ, if you were understanding what it is saying, it wouldn't be good. If you beat and say that, you will drive people away into the bush.” And they said that my beating had surprised them, because what I beating was saying some heavy things about some people. And I myself didn't know if I was abusing them or praising them. The way I was beating it, it was only my wrist that was talking. That is why I told you that we can be doing something with our sense, but we don't know the actual meaning of it. The way I was beating the Kotokoli language, I didn't know what I was beating and saying. And at the time, I didn't get a chance to ask them so that they would explain it to me. But as for the Kotokolis who were hearing it, I was talking the talks of their land, and they knew what I was saying. And so my beating had surprised them a lot.
When we finished the beating, the Kotokoli drummer asked me the town where I was staying, and I said I was staying in Tamale. And he asked me where I went to from Tamale, and I said, “When I left Tamale, I went to Kintampo.” And he asked, “Were there Kotokolis there?” And I said, “Truly, there were no Kotokolis there. Gonjas, Wangaras, Dagbamba, Ligbis: they were there.” And he said, “When you got up from Kintampo, didn't you go somewhere again?” And I said, “I stayed in Kumasi.” And then he said, “Yes. That is why you are beating the drum like that. As for Kumasi, everyone is there. If you stay there, you can beat everyone's dance because it is a wide town. Every town has got its person in Kumasi, and all the towns' dances are there, and that is why you know drumming like that.”
This Zamanduniya you have been learning, it is a Kotokoli dance. It is their dance and the Dagbamba have collected it. When the Dagbamba come out for us to beat it, we know how to beat it for them. And when the Kotokolis come out, it's their dance and we know how to beat it; we change it and they hear it from the guŋgɔŋ. The Kotokolis will know that we know how to beat their dance because as we are beating, we talk to them with the drum, and it will be correct. They will be surprised because you the Dagbana drummer, you yourself don't understand what the drumming is saying, but you are talking to them. But the Kotokolis understand what you are saying.
This word “Zamanduniya” is not the Kotokoli language. It is Hausa language. The Hausas call it Hankuri Zamanduniya. “Hankuri” is patience, and “zamanduniya” means to sit down in the world. And so it means, “You have to have patience to sit in the world.” The beating of Hankuri Zamanduniya is a bit different from the way we have been beating Zamanduniya at wedding houses and funeral houses. A yi bɔri ni a be duniya, ni shee suɣlo: that is the Dagbani meaning of Zamanduniya, that if you want to sit in this world, unless you have patience. That is the meaning of Zamanduniya. The Hausas are the ones who call it Zamanduniya. But the Kotokolis call it Gaabitɛ. The Kotokolis and the Hausas dance it the same. In Gaabitɛ, the drum is saying, “A nyaakuna abaabife.” As for the Hausa who are staying with us here, I haven't seen them with guŋgɔŋs, but how I saw the Hausas beating in the South, inside their beating, they have guŋgɔŋ, and they have what we call alijɛɛta, a horn. They blow it, and the guŋgɔŋ will respond, and then the alijɛɛta will collect it again. And they have a small drum we call prigiti; it looks like a small mortar, about the size of a calabash. And they take some leather skin and twist it, and it is a bit flexible, and they use it to beat this small drum: pri-gi-tin-tin, pri-gi-tin-tin.
We Dagbamba have Zamanduniya, and we call it Ayiko, which means “only two” in our Dagbani. When a Dagbana comes out to dance it as Ayiko, it's different. We beat and add to it, and even we beat it and some Dagbamba don't know it. There are even some drummers, many of them, if you ask anyone of them to beat Ayiko, he will tell you that he doesn't know what is Ayiko. And so Zamanduniya is one dance, but it has three names. If you don't go around and watch, will you know all three names? As you are now learning with Old Adam Ibrahim and Yisifu, you should ask them what is the name given Zamanduniya by the Dagbamba. Adam is the son of Savelugu Taha-Naa Ibrahim Awulilana, and as Adam is old, maybe he will know, but Yisifu will not know anything except Zamanduniya. And maybe Adam won't know. A drummer who has never gone to the South to learn drumming, if a Kotokoli woman sees him and tells him to beat Gaabitɛ, he will say he doesn't know what Gaabitɛ is. But it is Zamanduniya. And they all have their styles, and you have to get to know all this. And so all these styles, if you don't learn how to beat them, they will call you a drummer, but you will not be a complete drummer.
It was Alhaji Adam Alhassan Mangulana and his people who brought Zamanduniya here. They also went to Kumasi, and it was there that they heard it, and they brought it here and were beating it. In all Dagbon, it is Alhaji Adam who brought Zamanduniya. And so I can say that Zamanduniya is a new thing to us Dagbamba. Alhaji Adam is an old man, and I think that he has reached more than a hundred years. But even someone up to that age, do you think that what he has brought is an old thing? The time they came from Kumasi to Tamale here, they were going to many places and beating Zamanduniya, and at that time I was not yet in my sense, and so I think it will be more than fifty years ago. And so it's not an old thing.
The time they were beating Ayiko, I was a small child at Nanton. My brother Mumuni was at Voggo, but if any festival came, he would come to Tamale and be following Mangulana and beating lundaa. At that time, my brother Sheni was beating guŋgɔŋ and following Mangulana, and I can say that he and Mumuni were about the same size. At that time, Mumuni was singing seriously, and if the festival finished, he and Sheni would go around to houses to beat the drum. And they used to go to the market and beat, too, and Mumuni would be singing and Sheni would also be singing. That was how they were. It was about the time I came from Nanton to Tamale that Mangulana hung his drum, and Sheni came and stood to be holding the drummers of Tamale, and so I was following Sheni and beating. But the time I was small, I used to like the beating of Ayiko. At that time, my brother Mumuni sewed a small drum for me, and when it was daybreak, I would go around to every house. If I saw people sitting down outside their house, I would be singing and beating Ayiko for them, and they were giving me small, small things. That is why I won't forget about the beating, because I knew it very well even as a child. Any time I saw anyone, that was what I beat.
And so the way Kotokoli people call it Gaabitɛ, the Hausa people use their language to call it Zamanduniya. And these Hausa people's talk has pushed down our Dagbani, and it has passed everywhere that it is Zamanduniya. And so we put our Ayiko aside. As we are sitting down now, if you go and ask the young drummers to beat Ayiko, they will tell you that they don't know what is Ayiko. They will ask you, “What is Ayiko?” But if you call Zamanduniya, then they will know what you mean. But in my time, we knew what was Ayiko. And people like Sheni and Mumuni and Mangulana, too, they know it. Apart from that, the rest of them will not know what it is. I told you that Mangulana is old. All the Tamale drum children, many of them are having wives, and since they were born, they have never seen Mangulana holding a drum and beating. Some of Mangulana's own children have never seen their father beating a drum. How can they know what their father was beating? And so as for me sitting down, at that time I was coming into my sense, and that is why I know what is Ayiko.
And so drumming has got many ways. This Zamanduniya I have talked about, the styles in Zamanduniya are so many that if you want to learn all, you will be learning up to the time you run away and leave it. Truly, I am not praising myself about knowing the different types of drumming of the tribes, but I don't think there is anybody who can beat it more than I. We were sitting yesterday and I was teaching you how I beat Zamanduniya on the drum. You can beat the guŋgɔŋ well, but you told me that you had been finding it difficult on the part of the drum. The others who are teaching you don't beat the same thing as I beat yesterday. But the way I beat yesterday, I think in my heart that you can learn it easily, and how you beat it yesterday was very nice. I have many more styles than that, and they are all clear, and you will get them easily. Then whenever you are beating it, anybody who comes to listen will know that, truly, you are beating Zamanduniya. And if it is beating the guŋgɔŋ in Zamanduniya, I will also add you more styles in a clear and simple way, and you will never find it difficult. And so it's good if you want to learn something, you learn it in a better way.
Truly, Zamanduniya has no end. If you are beating the drum in Zamanduniya, there is a style you will beat, and those who beat the guŋgɔŋ cannot answer with the guŋgɔŋ unless you turn to tell them how to beat it. As for Zamanduniya and Tɔra as well, truly, to beat the different styles is very difficult. The guŋgɔŋ beater will be beating the guŋgɔŋ, and you will beat the drum and make a style, but he will not be able to get the sort of style you are making. And so we have the Kotokoli Zamanduniya, and the Kotokolis are the ones who truly have the Zamanduniya, and they call it Gaabitɛ. And we have the Dagbamba Zamanduniya we call Ayiko. And we have the Hausa Zamanduniya. They are all there, and we beat them.
This Adamboli we are beating, it is a dance of the Kotokolis. It was the Hausas who collected it, and we heard it from the Hausas and not the Kotokolis. We did not go to the Hausas to learn it. When we are drumming, we stand at one place and the Hausas stand at a different place. I told you that their way of beating is different because they don't have a guŋgɔŋ. They have their drummers beating luŋa, and they have the small round drum and they use a leather stick to beat it, pri-gi-tin-tin, pri-gi-tin-tin, and the drummers will answer, ten-te-ren-ten, ten-te-ren-ten. That is Adamboli. The time I saw the Kotokolis beating it, I was at Sunyani, and I saw it beaten at Sunyani with the guŋgɔŋ. When I saw them beat it, I knew that truly, it was their dance.
And so there are different ways of learning the drum, and if I want to show you, you will see that there are many, many groups. Someone will beat Adamboli, and you will hear it and not know that it is Adamboli the fellow is beating. As he is beating it, he has changed it. It shows that he has not heard it well. But as my group is beating these dances, we have heard them, and we also know how to drum. Those tribes who are for a dance, if they beat it, you will not hear anything different from what we beat. And as the dance is for them, they will have different ways of beating it, and we will catch it. If it is Gaabitɛ or Jɛbo, we will go to some place and beat it, and then we will go to a different place and beat it, and you will hear it there and not think that it is Gaabitɛ or Jɛbo we are beating. You will say, “As for this, I have never heard Jɛbo or Gaabitɛ beaten in this way.” But we beat it, and there is no mistake in it.
What I'm telling you, sometimes you will hear someone beating Adamboli, and he will take styles from Ŋun' da nyuli and add them. If you know that you can take one and put it into another one, and it will fit inside, then you can do it. That is the work of sense. If you are adding something, and it doesn't fall well inside, then you have to leave it, or you will spoil the beating. You have been beating Adamboli, and you know how it sounds. Ŋun' da nyuli can fit inside it. But can they add Naɣbiɛɣu into it? No. But if you add Ŋun' da nyuli to Adamboli like that, I can say that you are spoiling Adamboli. You the one beating, you are thinking that if you put Ŋun' da nyuli like that, it will be good. But to me, it's not fine. As for some of the small drummers and the children, they take their heart to do anything, and it's not fine. As you have added the styles and changed it, if you go and beat it for someone who knows Adamboli, will he say that what you are beating is the same as what he knows? Sometimes someone will say that it is not Adamboli. And so at that point, what are you beating? That is why I say that you have spoiled it.
As for the Kotokolis, they are somehow close to the Bassaris. The Bassaris are in Togo, and they are also around Yelizoli, and sometimes people call them to beat. If you understand the Kotokoli language, you will understand the Bassaris. The Bassaris have their lunsi-drummers. Formerly we didn't know how to beat the Bassari dance, Bassari-waa. It was in Accra that I learned the Bassari dance, because in Accra, every tribe is there. When I came to Tamale here, some Bassari people told us to beat their dance for them, and it was at that place that I taught our drummers how to beat the Bassari dance, and we are now beating it. How I used to beat their dance, any time they come here to beat, it is the same thing as how I beat it.
And so the Bassari people have their way of dancing which we know, and there is another which we also know. There are some people we call Chilinsis. They are around Chereponi. The Chilinsis are near to the Bassaris, and they also have their dance, and we beat it. The Bassaris, Chilinsis, and Kotokolis all follow behind the Dandawas. The Chilinsis don't have lunsi drums; they only have guŋgɔŋs, and how their guŋgɔŋ sounds, we take our sense to beat it like that. They have a dance, and when they dance it, they shake their waists. I learned that dance and I came to Tamale with it, and we were beating it. The Chilinsi people are not many in Tamale, but one day they were called to attend a competition here. That was the day they came and beat their dance, and everybody knew that the dance I was beating sometimes was truly the Chilinsi dance.
It was at Kumasi too that I learned how to beat the Zambarima dance, Zambarima-waa. I saw it at Kumasi and I went to Accra and I also saw it there. At Accra, if you go there and you don't see every tribe, then you will not see any tribe. I was at Accra and I also saw the dancing of the Dandawas. The Dandawas and the Zambarimas resemble each other: if you hear the language of one, you will hear the language of the other. This Gbada we beat, it is for the Dandawas and the Kotokolis. If you look at the Kotokolis and Dandawas, they also look something alike. The Dandawas call the Kotokolis their slaves, and so if the Dandawas are doing something and the Kotokolis see it, the Kotokolis don't say it is theirs. But we heard Gbada from the Kotokolis, and we beat it for the Dandawas to dance.
We don't know the town of the Wangaras. They are from Bobo-Dioulasso and Mali. But we can beat their dance. When the Wangaras were here, their drummers came here to beat, and we would go and see. When I was staying at Kintampo, we were beating Damba for the Gonjas and the Dagbamba there. The Wangaras and the Ligbis I was talking of, they also dance Damba. The Ligbis are in the French land, in Ivory Coast, and some of them were staying in Kintampo. The Wangaras had a dance that they beat in the Ramadan month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month. They would start it on the twenty-sixth night. When they wanted to beat it, they made something like a shed, and they put sticks and spread many different cloths on top to decorate it, or sometimes they would use praying mats, and it was big. The way a rich man can decorate his bed, that is how they would decorate the place. And I asked, and they told me that they make the shed to represent a bed. Any girl who was not married, they would dress her and bring her out and let her climb on top of the shed and sit down there. If anyone wants a wife and wants to start looking for her, it is on that day that everyone will know. The young men would go to the house of the leader of the drummers in the town, and give money that he should give them drummers to go and bring down a wife. Sometimes they would come to Tamale here and call drummers to go there, or they would go to Kumasi and call drummers. And we would go. Every area had its girls, and they had their place. What they were doing, they called it Kurubi. When they finished eating the night food, every drummer would come out with his drum and stand by the shed, and we would start. They had no dance apart from Damba.
That day, you won't recognize any girl. Even if you know her, you won't recognize her. The way she dresses the time of this Kurubi will make you surprised. Every girl who is sitting on the sheds is holding a tail. We will be beating Damba, and you will see the young boys come out, and any young boy who will stand in front of the girl, it means that the husband has come. And that girl will give herself to him. Any girl they want to marry, these boys will come and remove her from the shed, put her on their shoulders, and put her down to dance. When she comes down, she will be happy, and she will start dancing. The girl will be dancing and swinging the tail from side to side, and she is showing that she has people who are holding her. When she is dancing, they will give money, and it is in the giving of money that people will know that this person from such-and-such house wants this girl from such-and-such house. Those who put shillings on her head will put them, and those who put twenty pesewas will put them, and those who also put paper are there, and as the money is falling down, we drummers pick it and collect it. As for the paper they give her when she dances, that will be for the girl's people, because the boys have already hired us, and it is that money the girl's people have taken to buy the girl's things. And even some of the women who press coins on her forehead will spread their cloth to be catching the money, and if the money falls down, you the drummers are going to struggle with them before you get it. The child who is going to be picking up the money, if the small drummer with you is not strong, you won't get any of the money. As for the one who has brought down his wife, his case is finished. And the ones who are not strong will go to the one holding the drummers, and they will come again and tell you the drummers that you should take them to go and bring their wife down. And you will go again to that place, and Damba will cry again, and you will see another girl coming down. That night, unless dawn before you will go home to eat. As for that time, there is sleeplessness in it. Truly, to see this Kurubi is wonderful, and it is only in traveling that you will see it. Those who only sit in Tamale here will not know it, but we who have gone, we know it.
As for the Guruma dance we are beating, Guruma-waa, I don't know the Guruma town, and we don't have Guruma drummers here. We have seen them beating and we heard them, but we have never beaten together with them. I know how to beat the dance of the Gurumas, and it was they themselves who beat it and I heard. I beat the Guruma dance as they used to beat it in Kumasi and Kintampo. I used to stand and watch them beating. And so as I am beating their dance, I didn't follow the Gurumas to learn it, and I didn't go to lie down with them at night to learn it in that way. It is sense I used to learn it. My sense was: when they are beating, I come and stand and listen. I had sense, and that is why I was able to learn to beat their dance. But what I have heard, I know that it is the Guruma dance, and we beat it. But I can say that even if Gurumas want, and they come and beat with us, they will never know how to beat our Dagbamba dances.
As for the Konkombas, we are also beating their dance, Kpiŋkpan-waa. Some time ago, I left Tamale here and I was at Yendi. And the time I came from the South, inside my drumming I had money, and I had bought a passenger bus that carried about twenty passengers. One day I went with my bus to a town called Buya, and when we reached there, there was a Konkomba who was dead in the town. The Konkombas brought the dead body from the room and dressed him outside, and they brought all his clothes outside to show people; and at that time they set up a dance. There was a very tall tree in the middle of the dance. They were dancing around the dead body. They were pulling their guŋgɔŋs on the ground and beating them, and there was another type of drum which was carried by somebody while another person was beating it. Somebody was blowing a flute, and they had a whistle, too. There were three lunsi-drums among them. I came and stood there watching them dancing. At that time, we didn't know how to beat the Konkomba dance. And that was the day I first listened to the Konkomba dance, and that was the place I learned how to beat the Konkomba dance.
When I left Yendi and came to Tamale here, we went to a wedding house to beat. There was a Konkomba woman there who came out and said we should beat a Konkomba dance for her. And I got up and received a drum, and I told the guŋgɔŋ drummer to move and give me a way. The woman came out and tied her waist with a waistband, and she took a scarf and rolled it and tied it around her head. Then another woman come out and did the same thing, and they were following one another. When I started to beat the drum, the one beating guŋgɔŋ didn't know how to respond, and I showed him, and I taught all the people who were there drumming how to beat the Konkomba dance. It was at that place that they all learned how to beat it. And we started. That day, even those women who were not Konkomba, they were dancing it, because it was very, very sweet. And so I can say that I brought the Konkomba dance to Tamale here. It was after that that people got to know me. Whether the Arts Council or anybody, any time someone wanted people to come and beat drums, they came and called me. And one time they called the Konkomba people to come and beat, and when they came and beat, it was the same thing that we were beating.
We are also beating the Frafra dance. I learned how to beat the Frafra dance during Christmas time, because at Christmas time the Frafras sometimes come to Tamale here and beat. We can beat the Ashanti dance, and we heard it from them, but they cannot beat our dance. As for the Gurunsi dance, we didn't go to the Gurunsi town to learn it. We have never come together with the Gurunsis to beat, but when they beat, we hear them. We only see them here and we watch and beat what they beat. As there are Gurunsis in Tamale here, any time they ask us to come and beat for them to dance, we beat it for them.
It is because we have learned how to beat the drums very well that we were able to know how to beat all these dances. But all the tribes I have counted, none of them can beat our drums. Even the Mamprusis are our mothers' children, and we can beat their dances, but they cannot beat our dances. We beat Damba for them to know it, and we beat all dances for them to know. They have a dance they call Bululu. Sometimes we call it Tɔhi-waa, the Hunter's Dance, or just Mamprugu-waa, the Mamprusi dance. If there is a funeral and the Mamprusis are there, you will see them dancing it. It is their dance but we can beat it, and we are always beating it for them to dance. We have not gone to their town, but we heard it from them.
And so if it is the tribes that are here, and they are black, the only tribe's dance we cannot beat is the Kusasi dance, because they don't have anyone beating a luŋa. They are the only ones who don't have lunsi-drummers. But we Dagbamba are their drummers. If they are having their funerals, it is Damba they dance, and we beat it for them.
And so whenever I go anywhere with my drummers to beat, it has never happened that someone will come out and ask for a dance we don't know how to beat. Whatever happens, if there are fifteen or twenty or thirty of us, at least one of us might have gone to the fellow's town, and we will know how to beat his town's dance for him. And so if you are a drummer, you don't sit only in your town. If you are a drummer and you don't go outside, you will not learn more. Why is it so? It is just because it is roaming that will let you learn more.
And so it is good, if you are a drummer, when you are in your town, and they are teaching you, you should learn all of what we call the fuɣli-fuɣli of drumming, that is, the cheap parts of drumming that can be learned easily. Then should you go to another place and learn the easy parts there. It will all be adding to your way of beating. It is not just going to the South that will change your way of drumming. We ourselves, as we are here, there are differences, we are divided in our way of beating, too. Someone can be at Savelugu and come from Savelugu to Tamale here. When he comes here, he is going to learn the way Tamale people beat a drum. When he leaves this town and goes to Tolon, he will beat the way Tolon people beat. And when he leaves Tolon and goes to Kumbungu, he is going to let Kumbungu people also teach him how to beat.
And so you should learn the easy parts of drumming, the ones that are not difficult. Why do I say that they are not difficult? You have already learned drumming. When you learn something well, if someone says it is difficult, you will say it is not difficult. It's like the way you John use your left hand to write. We say you know the fuɣli-fuɣli of writing, because we know that writing is not difficult for you at all: we believe that even if you take a pen and put it in your anus, you will be able to write. And so when someone does something and he knows it well, we say fuɣli-fuɣli. And so when you go round and get different styles of drumming like that, you will just get them easily, and when you go to any other place, what you have just picked easily will show that, truly, you know drumming well. And so the eye-opening of drumming is just to be traveling all around. If you don't travel, your sense is only one-way. It is in the traveling that you will see all the good ways of beating and all the bad ways of beating.
And so if you want to learn drumming, you have to learn it from someone who knows much about it. If you learn it well, then any drumming you hear will be adding, and you will get it easily. If you learn drumming from somebody who only knows how to beat one part, and he doesn't know how to beat this, that, and so on, your drumming won't go far. It is not-knowing that makes us travel to learn different types of drumming. And so it is good, if you want to learn drumming, you should learn from someone who knows it well. And if you want to teach somebody how to drum, you show him all the corners in the drumming so that he will also know it. But if you don't travel to learn all this, and you only stay at one place, if someone comes, how can you teach him? You have to travel. If you travel and learn, when someone also comes to you to learn, you will use your sense and give all you have learned to him. If he takes it to his town and is beating, people who know something about drumming will also know that, truly, there is someone who also showed this fellow how to beat this. And that is how I am teaching you.
How we are having these talks all the time, we sometimes close late. If not that, I would have wanted to show you many more things and how to beat a drum perfectly. But I also see that truly, these talks are important, and we have to be doing them. If you were to learn both the drum and the guŋgɔŋ and be perfect on both of them, it would be very, very good. The way you are beating a drum now, there are people who were born into this drumming, and you can beat it more than they can. Any time we are somewhere beating the drums and you are there, if you don't forget, you should ask me, “Among these people, whom can I beat more than in the drumming?” I will show you all of them. They will be hanging their drums from their armpits, and you will listen to what they beat. And you will also tell me, “Yes, it's true. I can beat more than them.” Even how you are beating guŋgɔŋ now, you beat it more than some people. If you are to beat a guŋgɔŋ face-to-face with Yisifu, if it is that Yisifu should not use strength, and you are to beat coolly and make styles, you will beat more than Yisifu. And so what you are doing with this drumming is not a joke. You shouldn't throw it away and forget of it. It is not a joke at all. And so as you are going around, you should use your sense and be adding to what you have learned. And it will be very, very good.
And I think I will stop here, and tomorrow I will continue straightforward with the talk about drumming, and I will talk on the part of how drummers become old and how they eat chieftaincy, and how a chief drummer dies and we bury him. And inside it, I have been thinking that I will show you some deep and hidden talks about our drumming and how it moves. Tomorrow I will talk about all that.