There is an old African tradition among the Yoruba People of communicating between villages though the use of hourglass shaped drums that can be adjusted to mimic the sounds of human speech. There was nothing like this anywhere in the world. The Gold Coast got around to displaying it on their last stamp issue before independence. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
There is an earlier version of this stamp with King George VI and a later version with an overprint recognizing independence in 1957. Queen Elizabeth is still with us but when Charles or William replace wouldn’t it be great if the Commonwealth did a new version with the new King. Talk about continuity and talking drums are interesting in any time period.
Todays stamp is issue A15, a 2 Pence stamp issued by the Crown Colony of the Gold Coast in 1954. It was a twelve stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Check out the hand cancelation by pen on mine. The George VI version has the same value but the independence overprint adds 15 cents to the value.
Drumming holds a special significance to the Yoruba people. Those of them that still adhere to their legacy religion believe that the first Yoruba drummer was named Ayangalu. It is believed that upon his mortal death, he was deified and became an Orisha. An Orisha is a spirit sent down from higher deities to communicate with mortals, in Ayangalu’s case all future drummers.
The talking drum is hourglass shaped with drums on both ends and many cords down each side. The cords can adjust the pitch between beats. In this way a very skilled drummer can lyrically mimic human speech. The drums became tools of communication as in the right circumstances the sound can carry as far as five miles.
In the poetic verbal tradition of the griots, African verbal historians and poets, the communication is not simple and short like say Morris code, but rather long and stretched out. Go home might be drummed as go where your feet want to take you. This longer phrase is then repeated several times in the hope that it will be properly interpreted by the listener. You can hear an example here, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=talking+drums+ghana&docid=608034306542275132&mid=1C2F896B5CBDEE7CF2611C2F896B5CBDEE7CF261&view=detail&FORM=VIRE .
The use of the talking drum as of course declined and fewer and fewer have the skill to play it. The talking drum has showed up in western music including Fleetwood Mac and The Grateful Dead including attempts by their drummers to play live at shows. One wonders if they pray for the blessings of Ayangalu before the attempt. The talking drum also appeared on the soundtrack to the recent movie “Black Panther”. The score for that movie was written by Ludwig Goransson.
Well my drink is empty and I will listen for the drumbeats to decide if I get another. Hearing nothing, away goes the bottle. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.