ABOUT DJEMBE HAND DRUMS
The correct spelling is DJEMBE, but it is often misspelled Jamba, Jembe or yembe or even jumbo & jumbeh!
That is where I first heard the trance inducing sound of over 100 African djembe drummers & hundreds of powerful dancers gathering the force of the night with their fierce drumbeat & dance steps pounding into the soft earth. The ground shook, the trees bounced, the monkeys screamed in the trees and everybody danced. Time Flew... we went all night and there was never a thought of fatigue. Those Djembe Drums held power, brought energy and healing to all and it was one of many spectacular nights that I spent in Sierra Leone, West Africa.
I have written about our experiences in Sierra Leone in the articles section of the website. Over the next few months (May - December/08), I will keep on writing our stories. There are hundreds of incredible experiences that I will be writing about. We lived & worked in Africa for one year and every day was like a whole year of surprise, learning, compassion and miracles.
It is my hope that the truth about Africa & her fabulous African people will be known to the world someday and that my own personal and intense love of the African people will be transferred to all who read our story.
ABOUT THE DJEMBE
The Djembe Drum is played and made in many many countries around the world now, but this type of hand drum comes originally from Africa.
There are now dozens of countries in West Africa and thousands of tribes and even more thousands of unwritten languages, including the language of the drum. The Djembe was traditionally the drum of the Mandinka people, and its origins dates back to the great Mali Empire of the 12th century. African drums, especially the djembe has become very popular in Europe, Asia, North America, the Carribean and Latin America. You can hear traditional African Rhythm being played in all genres of music all over the world. Nothing quite drives a dance, like a chorus of Djembe Drummers pounding out those trance-inducing riffs.
Today, Djembe Drums are being carved out of every kind of tree in the world all over the world and even made out of synthetic materials. We made our djembe drum collection out of Douglas Fir Trees cut from our own 100 year old temperate rainforest. Tree Huggers chill; this big tree did die of its own accord and was blessed by our animal familiar the great Pilliated Woodpecker, a master drummer of the wild bird world. The giant of the Woodpecker family came to our yard and perched at the very tip of our 300' dead fir tree and called out loudly for an hour or so. We exchanged a few patterns on our drums with him, he being the better drummer, even though he played with just the one beak. The different types of tree wood used to make a djembe will produce remarkably different tones; a veteran djembe player can tell what kind of wood a drum is carved from, just by the sound!
The drum body is then fitted with a smooth dry goatskin that is soaked to become soft. It is attached to the drum body by the use of two precisely sized metal rings and strong rope that is woven with a fantastic knot that will take you hours of watching to figure out. The skin must be very very tight to make all the great djembe booms and pops that drive the dancers wild.
Most of the drumming we heard in our year in Africa (Sierra Leone) was at night, when the heat had eased off a degree or two. Dancing is the way to amusement, healing, therapy and spiritual enlightenment for all ages of Africans. Once you have found yourself giving in to the drum and the dance, it becomes a truly supernatural experience.
