Drum

Item number 2704/41 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Data
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Description

Drum with three long legs and a skin top. The drum is painted with a reddish pigment. The circular skin top is stretched down and tied with bark to a double woven band around the middle of the drum. Into the woven band are pushed nine carved stakes. The stakes are short, pointed and unpainted. The drum is round and one piece with three thick, irregularly carved legs.

History Of Use

Wedge and ring style or friction drum (uni membranophone) used by the Ekpe or Ngbe (leopard) secret society. The society was said to have originated in the Old Calabar region in the seventeenth century, spreading to and gaining prominence in southeastern Cameroon, or the grass lands, by the nineteenth or twentieth centuries among the Bamileke peoples. The drums of the Leopard secret societies played a significant role in rituals and performances, as they represented the voice of the Ngbe. Only designated initiated members were able to play them. Societies where the drums are played still exist today, but the roles of them have been significantly changed or diminished due to colonialism and Christian missionary influence.