Video Selection:
The video clip included here shows Reginald Mensah, one of the most active and knowledgeable drummers in Anomabu, at the chief’s palace drumming praises and other texts as part of the chief’s funeral rites. The drums are facing toward the palace where the chief’s body lays in state. I was unable to procure a spoken version of the texts that were drummed in this clip.
Performance Forces:
| atumpan | a pair of large single-headed, goblet-shaped tubular drums struck with a pair of L-shaped beaters by a single drummer; speech-surrogate instrument |