Drum Culture & History
I started drumming at 7 years of age, during Primary School in Bakau, The Gambia. Our school had an active program to encourage a group of drummers to learn and perform for important occasions, such as the Independence Celebrations and the school vegetable harvesting, etc.
Drums for Celebration
As we grew up our interest in drumming evolved into making our own drums using the local available resources. At Christmas, we would make a large lantern out of bamboo, light it with candles and take it round with us drumming house to house, as a means of celebration. Drums were played in all the important family ceremonies too such as naming ceremonies and weddings. Whether Wolof, Mandinka, Jola, Serer, Serahuleh, Aku etc, they all have their own way of celebrating with the drum.
A Passion for Drumming
Growing up experiencing these cultural, and musical riches led to my passion for drumming. This was taken up seriously after leaving secondary school, when I joined my Dad working in the Banjul Tourist Craft Market. We sold African Art and drums. This gave me access to better quality drums to play with. I learnt how to make my own drums there too and how to sell them, including selling drums to tourists.
Forming A Drum Band
It was after making my first drum that a group of boys of my age got together to form a drum band called “Afro Manding”. We used to wait for everyone to go home at the end of the working day so we could rehearse. We later hired a compound and rehearsed in there. We did this everyday for 2 years!
Drum Workshops
This led to me running drum workshops and performing in the Gambian Hotels. Afro Manding toured The Gambia and West Africa extensively, including performing for Yahja Jameh-President of Gambia. We played varieties of traditional Manding with mostly West African cultural fusions. One day whilst jamming at the market, a tourist came along to introduce himself and said that he would like to work with us. This man was Tim Brown from Raw Materials Studio in London…