August 18, 2011
Now that we have settled into the final days of our journey and adventure, there were only a few things left on the agenda. Today's adventure was to David Amoo's drum workshop. Let me tell you, I never could have imagined how many drums we would see, or how beautiful they are from start to finish.
David is a very funny, and very eccentric older man. He runs the shop, as well as works as the Artistic Director for the National Ghanaian Dance Ensemble. We will be seeing them tomorrow.
He discussed with us how the drums are created. Starting at the bare necessities of it all. The wood. He told us it is very important to make sure they replace the trees that they cut down. Ghana is only forested on 1/3 of its land. The rest is desert. So, if they cut down all the trees without replacing them, drums could no longer be made of wood, they would have to switch to plastic, fiberglass, or other materials.
The wood is carved, treated, and sent to the shop where David and his workers continue to work on masterpieces. The designs are drawn on, then carved into the wood and the drum is sanded. After this, the wood is stained to the darkness that they choose by mixing a mineral rock dye with water. From there, the hole for the pegs are put in.
David's brother took on the next part of it. He showed us how they take the skin of a caprine antelope and take the hair off of it to make the drum head. He said some drums use goat skin, but antelope is stronger. He stitches the drum head to make it fit with the twine perfectly around the drum. Each peg gets looped four times for stability. This is all done after the skin has soaked for about 20 minutes in water to soften it.
When this is complete, the skin must dry. Then the tightening process begins. He puts in new pegs, and hammers each one in, making sure the drum is in tune.
Watching this was incredible. On top of that, we all got to take our drums back with us.
I can't wait to show my sogo off in my classroom!
No comments:
Post a Comment