Percussion instruments in Africa and the African diaspora

North Africa

Idiophones of Islamic Africa are mainly those of the Middle East or derivations thereof. Outsize hollow clappers shaped like a dumbbell sliced lengthwise are clicked by Moroccan singers, who hold a pair in each hand. An inverted bowl set afloat in a larger, water-filled bowl, is beaten with a single stick by the Saharan Tuareg as their substitute for the western African water gourd. Finger cymbals are worn pairwise on the finger and thumb of each hand by dancers. Basically, however, the percussion of this area is executed by drums.

Sub-Saharan Africa

In contrast, sub-Saharan Africa has an almost bewildering variety of idiophones. Clappers, generally of wood, are played from coast to coast. Simple percussion sticks are known in East and West Africa. Scrapers in both solid and vessel form are widespread.

Xylophones vary in complexity from the pit xylophone, with a few wooden bars placed over a pit or trench, to the leg xylophone, with a couple of bars placed on the outstretched legs of a woman player, to the large instruments with independent framework and tuned keys graduated in size. African xylophones are usually provided with a gourd resonator suspended from each key, often containing a mirliton device that adds a buzzing quality to the tone. Ensemble playing of several xylophones, reported by 17th-century travelers, has continued to be practiced. In some areas xylophones form small orchestras with several performers playing one large instrument. Unmistakable similarities of form, playing technique, tuning, and even of the music performed confirm the African xylophone’s Southeast Asian origin.

Slit drums occur in western Africa and the Congo basin. They may be cylindrical, boat-, wedge-, or crescent-shaped, and zoomorphic with a dorsal slit. A cylindrical slit drum with from two to five slits is encountered in western Africa; the Kisi people of Guinea strike not only the slats formed by the multiple slits but the ends of the slit drum as well.

Bells occur in a large variety: metal and wooden, single or double, clapperless and with single or multiple clappers, played as rhythm or signal instruments. The apotropaic qualities of metal bells are recognized in Africa, where such bells may be associated with chieftainship. Double bells, usually of metal, share a common handle but differ in length or in diameter and, consequently, always in pitch. Metal double bells are devoid of clappers and are often made of sheet iron soldered down the side, whereas double bells of wood often have multiple clappers.

Water gourds—half gourds floated open side down in a pan of water and struck rhythmically with small sticks—are played in western Africa; in Benin their chief use is at funeral rites.

Rattles are the instruments par excellence of dancers, although they can also be worn on the leg simply to provide walking rhythm. Strung and gourd rattles are common, with the latter often serving in religious cults or magic rites in the Congo basin area. In western Africa the surface of a gourd is covered by a network of dried fruit seeds threaded on a cord; a player holds the gourd handle in one hand and shakes the plaited ends of the cords with the other. Sistrumlike forked sticks strung with threaded pairs of calabash fragments have an important part in fertility and initiation rites among the Mande of western Africa. The ancient horseshoe and rectangular forms of sistrum are still played in the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church.

The African lamellaphone is known to the West as the sansa, mbira, or “thumb piano” (a misnomer, based superficially on its appearance). It consists of a varying number of cane or metal tongues fitted to a wooden board or resonator so as to permit one end of the plates to swing freely; their different lengths determine the pitch. Mbiras show affinity of tuning with xylophones.