Drum
Unknown
Description
Subject Matter:
This drum was collected by Professor Allen F. Roberts during his anthropological research among the Tabwa people living along the southwestern shores of Lake Tanganyika, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As seen in the accompanying illustration, such drums were in use in the early 1900s, played by traveling troubadours who would press the base to their chest to produce polyphonic reverberations. Chest drums had largely gone out of fashion by the mid-1970s, when Roberts lived in the Tabwa region, but he was able to commission one from a local artisan. It is thus a recent example of a historical instrument. The replica was so successful that upon receiving it from its carver, Roberts was immediately asked to lend it to a local diviner named Mumba Marselina, who used it in her practice until Roberts left Congo in late 1977. The pattern of triangles around the base of the drum is called “the rising of a new moon,” a reference to a Tabwa saying that speaks of hope and courage in the face of difficulties.
Physical Description:
Circular drum with a carved wooden base and a stretched hide top. The drum is wide at the base, narrows in the center, and widens at the top.
Usage Rights:
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