The drummer is not playing a rhythm. He is speaking. When an Asante drummer strikes the atumpan, the pair of talking drums produces high and low tones that copy the tones of spoken Twi. People who know the drum language can understand the message: a chief is arriving, a person has died, the gods are being called.
A pair of drums
The atumpan are played as a pair. One drum has a higher pitch and is often called the female drum; the other, lower in pitch, is the male drum. They are tall, carved from wood and covered with skin. The drummer usually plays with two curved sticks.
A tonal language
Twi is a tonal language: the pitch at which a syllable is spoken can change its meaning. The atumpan exploits this. By imitating the rise and fall of speech, drummers produce phrases that listeners recognise. The drums cannot reproduce every sound of speech, so drum language uses set phrases and long formulas that make the meaning clear.
The drummer’s role
The master drummer, called the ɔkyerema, holds an important place in Asante chieftaincy. He knows the history of the stool, the names of past chiefs and the formulas used on state occasions. He must train for years.
What the drums say
The atumpan announce the arrival of chiefs, call people to gatherings, recite praise poems and history, and mark funerals. At durbars and festivals such as Akwasidae, their voices are part of the ceremony.
The opening
Performances often begin with a formal “awakening” of the drum, in which the drummer addresses the spirits of the wood and the materials used to make the drum, asking for their blessing before he speaks.
Beyond Asante
Talking drums exist across West Africa. The Yoruba dundun, an hourglass drum squeezed under the arm to change pitch, is the best-known example. Each tradition is adapted to its own language.
Today
Atumpan drumming is taught at institutions such as the University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts and in cultural groups. Ghanaian radio and television stations have used drum sounds in their signature tunes, and the drums appear at national events.
Long before mobile phones, the atumpan carried messages across villages. Today it is rarely needed for news, but it still does what no other instrument can: it speaks Twi.
