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— CHAPTER TWO —

DRUMS

EVERY race inhabiting South Africa either has or had a drum of some kind at one period of its existence, but such drums vary considerably in both form and function.

Apparently the drum was not originally employed by the Bushmen. In spite of thorough investigation I have not been able to find any reference to it in the earliest records, and those which appear later seem to me to indicate clearly that the instrument was borrowed from the Hottentots. Borcherds¹ described a drum which he saw played by the Bushmen near the Orange River in 1801: ‘The Bushmen were enjoying themselves with playing their native music, produced by beating on a pot covered with skin, a rude drum known as the rommelpot.’ He pointed out that the name is that known to the colonists, and also stated that drum-beating, as well as dancing and loud outcries, were indulged in by the Bushmen during thunder-storms and on moonlight nights. The name rommelpot, however, was that by which the colonists described the Hottentot drum; the origin of the application of this name to the instrument I shall deal with when discussing the drum of the latter race. The drum observed by Burchell² in the hands of Bushman performers at Kaobi’s kraal in 1812, and called by him a ‘water-drum’, appears to show the Hottentot influence distinctly. It is a great pity that Burchell did not obtain the name given by the Bushmen to this instrument, as thereby the question would probably have been cleared up. According to Burchell,

This drum was nothing more than a bambus or wooden jug having a piece of wet parchment strained over the top, and containing a little water. This instrument was occasionally inverted for the purpose of wetting the parchment, as often as it became dry. It was beaten with the right forefinger, by one of the women; while she regulated the pitch or quality of the sound by placing the forefinger and thumb of her left hand, upon the parchment. It seemed to be accurately in tune with the voices of the assembly; a concordance which could hardly be accidental.

The instrument had, in Burchell’s opinion ‘a mellow sound’. He further noted down the words and music of the song executed by the performers, together with the part for the ‘water-drum’.

Now the bambus was the characteristic wooden jug of the Hottentots, used by them for storing milk; it was not typical of the Bushmen, who had no cattle and therefore no milk to store. Again, with regard to the use of the water, I would suggest that it was not so much meant to keep the parchment damp as to wet it so that the heat of the sun’s rays would tighten it afresh and thus keep it up to pitch. The regular African method of tuning drums of this kind is by wetting the head and then heating it, either in the sun or before a fire.

Stow (1880)³ described a drum ‘formed from a portion of a shell of the great bush-tortoise, the bottom being cut away, and its place supplied with a skin stretched over it’. But a footnote to his original manuscript,⁴ deleted by Theal, his posthumous editor, is very illuminating. ‘Among the musical instruments which Mr. Backhouse saw used by the Bushmen was one formed of the shell of a tortoise, with a skin stretched over it.’ Now this was pure invention on Stow’s part, and the suppression of his footnote only made matters worse. What Backhouse actually wrote was:⁵ ‘A portion of a Bushman’s fiddle was thrown out with the mud; the sounding part was formed of the shell of a tortoise, which had probably had a skin stretched over it.’

A vernacular description of the method of making and playing upon a Bushman drum of similar type appears in Bleek and Lloyd’s Bushman Folklore.⁶ This text was obtained in 1878. The drum was made by tying a ‘bag’ (of skin) over the mouth of a pot (!kwa) by means of sinew. The bag, or skin, was then pulled tight. The skin was from the thigh of a springbok, and it was put over the pot while wet. The women were the manufacturers and also the performers. One woman would beat upon the drum, and the others would clap their hands, while the men danced. Now it must be remarked that this description is relatively recent, and does not reflect the Bushman practice of olden times. Moreover, the use of pots is not typical of the Bushman, who did not require such vessels for cooking, and used ostrich egg-shells in which to store water. A still more recent description of the use of such a drum by Bushmen is given by Miss D. F. Bleek.⁷ ‘The Auens also remembered a skin being tied over a pot to make a drum for big festivities.’ The locality in this instance was Sandfontein, in South-west Africa.

The use of a drum by Hottentots has been noted again and again by African travellers, though a curious position has been arrived at through a strange mistake in nomenclature which appears to date from the early part of the eighteenth century. The true Hottentot drum consisted of either a bambus or wooden milk-jug, or a clay pot, over which a piece of sheepskin or buckskin was tied. This instrument was made and played by women as an accompaniment to the dancing of the men. The earliest description of a Hottentot drum that I have met with is that of Dapper (1668),⁸ who wrote: ‘They have also a pot, with a skin stretched tightly over it, after the manner of the Lenten rommelpots of this country, which is continually struck by the hand.’ Dapper, who was never in South Africa, wrote his work in Holland, but took the trouble, as he himself admits in his preface, to obtain accounts from eyewitnesses as far as possible. The section dealing with the Hottentots, from which the above extract is quoted, was undoubtedly based upon information obtained from some one who had been on the spot. Unfortunately his name is not known. It is, however, very necessary to examine carefully what Dapper actually said about this Hottentot drum, since he first introduced the word rommelpot, although I am of the opinion that the adoption of this name for the Hottentot drum was not due to his description, but rather to that of Kolbe in 1719. Dapper’s description of the manner of making and of playing upon the drum was quite correct; a skin was stretched over a pot, and the instrument so formed was struck by the hand of the player. He also compared the manner of making it with that of the rommelpot of Holland, which likewise consisted of a pot or jar, the open end of which was covered with a piece of skin or bladder; but he did not suggest that the method of playing the two instruments was the same. As a matter of fact the Dutch rommelpot was an instrument of an entirely different character, and I shall discuss it fully when dealing with Kolbe’s account of the Hottentot drum. The next description is that of Schreyer (1669–77).⁹ ‘They take a pot and bind a skin over it, and on this pot the women beat with their hands and fingers, for these are their drums [trummeln] and kettledrums [paucken].’ Grevenbroeck (c. 1689)¹⁰ described the drum of the Cape Hottentots thus:

Their women sing an old song, nearly always the same, and to accompany it they strike their hands on a skin which is stretched over a pot and which is made fast by bands and riems, which does not make a pleasant impression upon European ears. The tambourine players [sic], sit with legs crossed under them, on the ground, now raising their eyes to heaven and to the moon, and now lowering them towards the ground, and to the pot filled with milk, making their music in their own way and with redoubled shrieking.

A similar instrument has been described by Thunberg (1795).¹¹ He gave it the name seckoa, and stated that it was made from a pot covered with sheepskin well moistened and secured by a thong. The players pressed the four fingers of the left hand upon the edge of the drum with the thumb in the middle, and struck upon the other edge with the first two fingers of the right hand. Other eighteenth-century writers, including Kolbe (1719),¹² Le Vaillant (1780),¹³ and Sparrman (1775),¹⁴ have also described the same instrument, Kolbe giving an illustration of it which has given rise to the curious mistake already referred to. Although Kolbe is in many ways most unreliable, it seems to me to be desirable to quote his description fully in order to clear up the point in question. In the original German edition of his Description of the Cape of Good Hope, he said,

In addition to the gomgom (vide p. 234) they [the Cape Hottentots] have yet another musical instrument which consists of a clay pot of such a form as they themselves make which has been described elsewhere, great or small as chance dictates. That pot they span with a sheepskin from which the hair has been removed, and it is prepared in the following fashion. They bind it [the skin] to the pot with riems or sinews very fast and very tightly strained. It is only the women who play—never the men—with a finger, and they strike upon it just as in Brabant and likewise in Thuringia and in Saxony they play upon the Rommelpot [Rommel-Topff ], as they are wont to do at their merrymakings and dances instead of [using] a drum [Trommel], or a military kettle-drum [Heer-pauke], as the following notes will show:

When they play upon this Rommelpot they also employ on these occasions vocal music, and they shout to each other Ho Ho Ho Ho, as set forth in the following notes

They also carry on this shouting without stopping for fully quarter of an hour or more, according as it pleases them.

Kolbe’s description of the actual drum is, of course, quite correct, as also is his version of the manner of playing upon it. It should, however, be pointed out that Kolbe stated that the Hottentot drum was a substitute for drums and kettledrums, and in so doing used the identical names for the latter instruments employed by Schreyer thirty-eight years earlier! But his unfortunate analogy, for which Dapper seems to have been originally responsible, has caused many later writers to adopt the name rommelpot when referring to the Hottentot drum, and in this they have been followed by the Dutch colonists, so much so that the word has been incorporated into the Afrikaans language in spite of the fact that its meaning has been completely changed. It will be seen that Kolbe pointed out that the Cape Hottentots used their drum on festive occasions as the people in certain European areas were wont to use the ‘rommel-topff ’, when a real drum was not available. For the true rommelpot was a friction drum made from a clay pot or wooden cylinder covered with a thin membrane, with a tiny perforation in the centre through which a straw was passed and secured on the under side. The performer, wetting his fingers, drew them along the straw, and the strong vibration thus begun was communicated to the membrane, which gave forth a roaring sound of variable pitch, according to the variation in pressure and the speed with which the fingers were drawn along the straw. This instrument was very popular in the Low Countries and it is still used by the children of Holland and Belgium at Christmas time as an accompaniment to certain songs performed by them at that season. The words and music of one of these songs have been quoted by Mahillon.¹⁵ He also shows that the instrument is popular in Germany.

I have described Kolbe’s analogy as unfortunate because several types of true friction drum are to be found in use among various native tribes in South Africa. These I have described later on in this work. The mistake in nomenclature on the part of subsequent writers, including Le Vaillant (who stated that the drum was made from the hollowed trunk of a tree, and erred in saying that it was played with a stick) and Borcherds, who, however, attributed the name to the colonists, would appear to have originated from the fact that the illustration of the instrument in Kolbe was definitely labelled ‘Ihr Romel-Topf.

Arbousset’s description¹⁶ of the drum of the Korana women is worth recalling here.

Consuming a great part of the day in smoking, and leaving their children covered with vermin, and their houses in a state of the most disgusting filth, like the men they reserve all their activity and vigour for the sukeis or pot-dance. When the moon enters her first quarter, all the kraal assemble on some favourite elevation; then they dance to the sound of the tang-tang, all the night long, and sometimes for eight nights in succession. In this amusement the Korannas place no control on their passions, and abandon themselves to excesses of which it would be a shame even to speak.

The so-called ‘tang-tang’ in this description is explained in another passage by Arbousset,¹⁷ in which he described a similar dance by the Baroa (Bushmen) of Mokoma: ‘Supper being over, the women with their children and the young men set themselves to dance during the first watches of the night, to the sound of a wretched tam-tam [the French term for a gong, but occasionally applied to drums by some writers, e.g. Mahillon]¹⁸ made of a small earthen pot, in the form of a quoit [disque in the original], and covered with the skin of a gazelle, well softened after having been stript of its hair.’

My personal investigations among the Korana Hottentots¹⁹ have resulted in my obtaining full descriptions of the method of making the true Hottentot drum and of playing upon it. This information was obtained direct from certain Korana women at Bloemhof in February 1932. The instrument was called /khais, and it was made from the wooden jar or pot called //hoes, of willow (Salix capensis) wood, which was used by the Korana for containing milk. This jar is, of course, the well-known bambus of earlier writers. A goatskin was procured, and all the hair was removed. While wet and soft, this skin was stretched over the mouth of the //hoes, secured in position by a piece of riem, and allowed to dry. The performer seated herself upon the ground, placed the /khais on the earth before her, and struck it with the flat palm of her right hand. It was used as a rhythmical accompaniment to the songs which were sung during certain dances. I was unable to ascertain whether any attempt was made to tune the instrument to a particular note, as was suggested by Burchell in the case of the ‘water-drum’ which he saw played by Bushmen; but it is quite conceivable that such tuning may have been practised by the Korana, when one considers their use of stringed instruments. As these old Korana women did not possess either an actual specimen of the /khais or suitable materials from which to make one, I was unable to secure a photograph, but a picture of an old Hottentot woman playing a similar instrument was drawn by Charles Bell, who accompanied the Andrew Smith Expedition to the Transvaal in 1834, and it is reproduced in Figure 2.2. Figure 2.1 shows a Hottentot woman, photographed some years ago by Miss D. F. Bleek at Prieska, playing upon the /khais.

Figure 2.2.Hottentot woman playing upon the /khais. From a drawing by CHARLES BELL, 1834.

The licence which accompanied the dances in which use was made of the /khais is referred to in the Berliner Missionsberichte²⁰ in the passage — ‘What has he done now? He has organized a so-called pot-dance, at which animals are killed, and they dance to the sound of a drum (a pot over which a skin is stretched). All sorts of licences are allowed at it which men can indulge in. This well suits the youths and girls who go to it in great numbers.’ The passage refers to an old and rich, though ‘godless and entirely hateful’ old man, who lived near the farm of the missionary (who was probably August Schmidt from Platberg). The people described were the ‘Right Hand’ Korana and the ‘Sorcerers’.

The employment of the skin-covered bambus drum by the Nama Hottentots was well described by Sir J. E. Alexander:²¹

The pot-dance, which I had not yet seen, was performed. About thirty Namaqua women seated themselves in a hut, from the arched roof of which hung two cords; these were grasped by a man, who commenced stamping the ground, first with one foot, and when that was tired, changing it for the other. He also sung in low chorus, ‘Uwahu’, to the ‘Ei, oh; ei, oh! ei, oh! ei, oh! ei, oh—oh! oh! oh!’ and clapping of the hands of the women. One of these held before her a bambus, in which was a little water, and over the top of it was stretched a piece of sheepskin. This was occasionally wetted with the water inside, and was beaten with the forefinger of the right-hand, whilst the pitch was regulated by the forefinger and thumb of the left.

Lieutenant Moodie²² described a drum which he saw the ‘Kaffirs’ playing at the Fish River between 1819 and 1829, as an accompaniment to a song of the men who were quite naked, and, holding assegais in their hands, leapt in the air in turns. ‘The women were drawn up at a hundred yards distance; they sang, clapped their hands, beat a kind of rude drum made of a calabash, and showed every token of the most extravagant joy.’ There seems to me little doubt that the Xhosa in this instance had adopted the Hottentot drum, for such a drum is quite unknown among them, and is radically different from the percussion instruments used by them in their ceremonies. Further, the particular district where Moodie saw the incident borders upon the territory formerly occupied by Hottentots.

A drum of similar type is found among the Berg-Dama in South-west Africa. Dr. Vedder of Okahandja, to whom I am indebted for information regarding this drum, describes it as follows. The drum of the Berg-Dama, which is called /arub, consists of a vessel of the shape and size of a common bucket, made from green wood. The bottom of this vessel is closed. The open top is covered with a piece of hide from a goat, calf, or steenbok (Raphicerus campestris), from which the hair has been removed. This ‘head’, having been thoroughly soaked in water, is stretched over the opening and made fast by being bound in position by strips of leather, which encircle it together with the ‘shell’ of the drum. The /arub is sounded by being beaten with the thumbs, and not with sticks. Any native may make one, but it is only used when a medicine-man has been called in to treat some sick person. On such an occasion, a fire is lighted, and the drummer seats himself to the east of it. The patient sits or lies by the fire. Opposite the drummer, to the west, the spectators, both men and women, are seated. The medicine-man takes up his position between the drummer and the fire. When the drummer begins to play upon the /arub, the medicine-man commences his dance. At the conclusion of this dance the drummer stops playing, and the treatment of the patient is begun. Should the drummer belong to the kraal in which the ceremony is taking place, he is not paid for his services; but if he is sent for to perform at another kraal, he is paid in fat, in addition to which he is presented with a goat or with some article of dress.

Campbell,²³ in his account of the Damara, noted their use of a kind of drum. ‘They beat ... on an instrument of skin, resembling a drum.’ Barnabas Shaw²⁴ also mentioned the fact, saying that the Damaras ‘make use of a drum similar to that of the Namacquas.’

The most rudimentary type of drum found among the Bantu of South Africa is the ingqongqo, and it is now met with only among the Xhosa of the Transkei and in neighbouring areas. It consists of an ox-hide or bullock skin, which has been pegged out and dried in the sun. After it has been properly dried, it is fastened on poles stuck into the earth, so that the surface of the hide is about three or four feet from the ground. It may thus be readily removed after use, and put away for future performances. Alternatively, small loops of hide are fastened at intervals round the skin, and these are held by the performers, who grasp them with their left hands, while with their right they strike upon the upper surface of the hide with sticks about two feet long called amaqoqa, so named because of the engraving which ornaments the upper part. The portion gripped by the hand is left plain.

The ingqongqo is only used at the abakweta dances during a circumcision school, when it serves as an accompaniment to the dances or songs executed by the boy initiates, marking the time for the dancers and exciting them. The beaters are always women who are near relatives of the initiates.

The skin from which the ingqongqo is made is obtained from a bull killed specially for the abakweta dance. The bull is usually given by a prominent man who has a son of his own amongst those who are passing through the initiation rites. The flesh of the bull slaughtered for this purpose is not eaten.

The engraving of the amaqoqa or beating-sticks is done by the boy initiates while the skin is being prepared. The skin itself is kept in the itonto, or grass hut in which the abakweta or initiates are living.

During the dances which are accompanied by the ingqongqo the initiates stand in a row in front of the cattle-kraal, facing the women, the tallest to the right, and the shortest to the left. He who is considered to be the best dancer is rewarded by the gift of an assegai, and the next best receives a long black umsimbiti stick (Millettia Caffra), neatly decorated. In some districts assegais are not given, and an umsimbiti stick then constitutes the first prize. The actual dances take place away from the inkundhla, the clean, well-trodden area before the cattle-kraal in which the councillors are wont to gather to give judgement on the various cases brought before them. The term uk-ombelela is used for ‘to beat the drum for’, and it appears in the sentence abafazi babesombelela abakweta, which means ‘The women were beating time for the circumcised boys’.

The instrument is known and used by the Tembu, who also call it ingqongqo, and their employment of it is identical with that of the Xhosa. It has been suggested to me that among the Tembu, the number of beaters is always even, six, eight, or ten being usual. I have been unable to obtain complete verification of this point.

Figure 2.3. Xhosa women playing upon the ingqongqo. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

The abakweta ceremony generally takes place towards the end of summer-time, and consequently the ingqongqo is only made and played then. The instrument is often destroyed after the ceremonies are at an end; this fact, together with the fact that the use of the instrument is dying out, causes it to be seldom met with.

The photograph in Figure 2.3 shows a number of Xhosa women beating an ox-hide after the manner of the ingqongqo near Kentani in the Transkei. The hide, however, is not a regular ingqongqo, nor are the sticks actual amaqoqa. Figure 2.4 shows four genuine amaqoqa of the Xhosa. The earliest reference to the use of the ingqongqo which I have come across is that of Rose.²⁵ In passing through the territory of Chief Hinza (whose own kraal was at what is now called Butterworth), Rose witnessed an abakweta ceremony in which the initiates ‘performed a wild kind of dance, the principal motion of which was a whirl, while the women sang a monotonous air, and kept beating an extended ox-hide, which they stood round’. The Rev. H. H. Dugmore²⁶ wrote a description of the abakweta ceremony in which he stated that, to accompany the ukuye-zezela, or dance of the novices, the women, collected in a company, stood together at a short distance, beating time with sticks upon a shield, while singing a kind of chant abounding in licentious allusions. Mr. Dugmore, moreover, pointed out that at the conclusion of the abakweta ceremony, contributions were made to the novices by their friends and neighbours to enable them to ‘set out in life’, one presenting an assegai, another a brass girdle, and a third a head of cattle. These presents may have become the prizes in the competition of recent times described above.

Figure 2.4. Amaqoqa, or engraved sticks used for beating the ingqongqo. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

The ingqongqo was also used at the initiation of a Xhosa witch-doctor, which was known as ukombela, a term which was used for dancing, drumming, or clapping the hands at a night party, or, for accompanying the incantations of a doctor. Such drumming, which accompanied the singing by the whole company present of special songs, was used for exciting the doctor, and working him up to a state of frenzy or ecstasy known as ukuxentsa, when preparing to ‘smell out’ an evil-doer. In addition to the beating of the ingqongqo, bundles of assegais would be struck together. This practice has been considered in the section devoted to rattles and clappers. In olden times the Zulu had similar practices.²⁷

I have said that the sticks with which the ingqongqo was beaten were called amaqoqa. Kropf²⁸ defined the verb ukuqoqa as ‘to carve, notch, or file a walking or tally stick with stripes; to beautify it so that it looks checkered’; and the noun iqoqa, of which amaqoqa is the plural, as ‘a kind of assegai the neck of which is filed in an ornamental manner’, or ‘a carved stick used by girls in dancing’. The ingqongqo and its beating sticks the amaqoqa would therefore appear to be the degenerate representatives of the great war shield and assegais, appropriated for ceremonial purposes as would be perfectly natural, and accordingly connected with the next type of drum to be described, which is still found in the same areas as those in which the ingqongqo is met with. This is the ikawu, which consists of a shield made from the skin of a parti-coloured ox. The skin is cut so as to be widest at the middle, narrowing towards top and bottom. Near the top is sewn a small piece of skin, in the middle of which a hole is made for the reception of a common knob-stick, a black knob-stick, a small assegai and a large assegai such as is used for slaughtering. The performer beats upon his ikawu with a knob-stick. The ikawu is used, with the ingqongqo, at the isijadu, which is an assemblage of boys who gather together at night in company with a number of girls, the occasion being known as umtshotsho. The girls sing and the boys tshotsha, or chant in a deep voice. Like the ingqongqo, the ikawu is also played at the abakweta dances.

Figure 2.5. Swazi warrior with shield. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

The playing of the ikawu manifestly represents a survival of the ceremonial use of the shield, which at one time was one of the weapons of the Xhosa. One of the Zulu words for shield is ihawu (which means a small shield used in dancing), and undoubtedly the shield itself was formerly one of the principal ‘drums’ of the Zulu. The Zulu shield consisted of the familiar oval of stout reinforced ox-hide stretched along a long staff, and with it the warrior was wont to emphasize the rhythm of his battle-songs, either by striking it with his club or assegai, or by bringing it down upon the ground with force. The practice was known as ingomane. Many writers have described this practice in the past, and it may occasionally be observed to-day. It was shared by practically all the native peoples who used the shield as a weapon, whether Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa, or Sotho. Two of the rock-paintings reproduced by Miss Helen Tongue depict natives drumming upon Sotho shields.²⁹ In the isibongo or praises of Dhlamini, one of the Swazi chiefs, which were collected and translated by Cook,³⁰ there is a reference to the practice.

Ndundumela ngoti lomgobo

Oluhlom’ Amandanda lubuye lunduzele.

This, as translated by Cook, means

They drum with the stock of their shields

Which the Amandanda use again and again.

A typical Swazi warrior, one of the bodyguard of Sobhuza II, Paramount Chief of Swaziland, is shown with his shield in Figure 2.5. This striking of the shields as an accompaniment to war-songs is shown by Harries³¹ to have been employed by the Thonga when they invaded the Yenda country. I myself, while visiting Kanye, in British Bechuanaland, met an old man named Tiro, who is well over a hundred years of age. He described how, while still a tiny boy, he hid in the bush when Moselekatse and his impis devastated the land. I asked him what he remembered of the occurrence, and he told me that the Matabeli, as he called these Zulus, marched through the country chanting their battle-songs, and beating upon their shields. This occurred about the year 1830. Alberti,³² who was in the Xhosa country between 1800 and 1804, recorded the striking of shields with knobkerries as the accompaniment to a chant or rhythm sung by hunters while praising one of their number who had been successful in slaying a lion. Such shields were called ikawu or ingweletshesho. But Rose (1829)³³ gave a description of a Kaffir (Xhosa) rain-maker performing a ceremony in order to discover a witch, who was supposed to have been responsible for the illness of the chief Pato. During this ceremony the women, ranged in a semicircle, beat upon the larger shields of the warriors as an accompaniment to their chanting.

The Rev. Robert Godfrey, who drew my attention to the ikawu of the Xhosa, points out that it is used in a dance in which cattle, specially trained, dance in the middle of the ring of men and women. As this statement may strike some of my readers as perhaps somewhat improbable, I shall give in its support several historical references and other evidence of its having been witnessed in the past.

Lichtenstein (1804–6)³⁴ observed the remarkable ability of the Xhosa to train their cattle, which would obey their master’s voices or the sound of little pipes which they would blow. Further, he noticed that the chiefs would teach their riding oxen, on a given signal, to run loose among the people, who had to counter by thrusting them aside with dexterous strokes.

But an actual performance of a dance in which trained oxen took part was observed by the ill-fated Piet Retief at Umgungundhlovu, the kraal of Dingaan, a few months before he and his party were massacred by the Zulu tyrant. The description occurs in a letter sent by Retief from Port Natal in November 1837.³⁵

In one dance the people were intermingled with 176 oxen, all without horns and of one color. They have long strips of skin hanging pendant from the forehead, cheeks, shoulders, and under the throat, and which are cut from the hide when calves. [Also noticed by Lichtenstein.] These oxen are divided into two’s and three’s among the whole army, which then dances in companies, each with its attendant oxen. In this way they all in turn approach the King, the oxen turning off into a kraal, and the warriors moving in a line from the King. It is surprising that the oxen should be so well trained; for notwithstanding all the shouting and yelling which accompanies this dance, yet they never move faster than a slow walking pace.

During these dances the men beat upon their shields with their knobkerries.

Kropf (1899)³⁶ gave as the meaning of the terms ixaka or ixaka eliqutu as ‘an ox with hanging horns; the dancing ox’.

The ingqongqo and the ikawu are representative of a very elementary stage in the development of the membrane type of drum, since they have no resonator attached to them. A drum used, although rarely, by the Swazi shows the temporary conjunction of skin with resonator. This instrument is called intambula, the name being in all probability derived from the Portuguese tambor. It consists of a clay beer-pot, or imbiza, over which a goatskin, not trimmed into circular form, is stretched temporarily. The hair of the skin is first removed, and the skin itself wetted. The player places the imbiza before him, and an assistant holds the goatskin tightly over the opening of the pot. The player then beats the intambula with a reed or stick held in his right hand. Figure 2.6 shows the pot, skin, and beater, and Figure 2.7 shows two Swazi men playing upon the instrument. The intambula may be played by a single individual. In this case he places the skin upon the ground with two of the leg-pieces towards him. He then kneels upon these to keep the skin in position, and, raising the skin, he puts the pot upon the ground beneath it. Then drawing the far edge of the skin tightly over the pot with his left hand and holding it in that position, he beats the ‘drum’ with the stick held in his right hand. The instrument was formerly used during the completion of the initiation of a witch-doctor, as well as at certain Swazi dances, notably the gida, or wedding dance. Nowadays, when employed at all, it is used for exorcizing evil spirits, in the same way that the Thonga use their mantshomane or tambourine drum described below.

Figure 2.6. Swazi intambula. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

A drum of somewhat similar appearance, and made from similar materials, although vastly different in technique and function, is the ingungu of the Zulu. This drum is now difficult to find, since the ceremonies at which it was originally used have practically disappeared, and to many of the Zulu it is unknown to-day. Very little has been written about it. I have found no mention of it in the works of travellers, but it figures in the dictionaries of Döhne (1857),³⁷ Davis (1872),³⁸ Colenso (1878),³⁹ Bryant (1905),⁴⁰ and Samuelson (1923).⁴¹ Döhne describes the instrument as a ‘kind of drum made by fastening a thin skin over a large basket. This was beaten like a drum, making a noise like ngu’. Davis states that it is ‘a kind of drum. It is constructed by placing a thin skin over anything hollow, as a calabash, which is beaten like a drum; hence, a drum.’ Colenso and Bryant define ingungu as a drum made by stretching a piece of skin over the mouth of a beer-vessel, and state that it was played at the time of the first menstruation of a Zulu girl. Colenso affirms that the girl herself played it by striking it with a stick, when it gave forth a sound like a gong; but Bryant holds that it was tapped by the hand as an accompaniment to some song. Both these authorities quote the Zulu proverb ingungu yaleyo ntombi kayakali, ‘The menstruation drum of that girl does not sound well’, a proverb which ridicules a girl who has had much to do with young men. Bryant adds that ‘Since the Zulu war, however, it has almost completely fallen into disuse, and is now scarcely known to young girls.’ Samuelson defines ingungu as ‘a native drum made by stretching a goat-skin, cleaned of its hair, across the opening of a cleaned out piece of wood, and then securing it to the wood’.

Now while it is obvious that all these authorities have described the same instrument, the discrepancies between them are manifest. After considerable search I found several Zulu who knew how to make and to play upon the ingungu.

Figure 2.7. Swazi men playing upon the intambula. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

One of these came from Nkhandla, in Zululand, and I observed him both making and performing upon the instrument. He obtained a black clay beer-pot, or imbiza, and a goatskin of suitable size and thickness. From the latter he removed the hair and roughly trimmed it to a circular form. This circular piece was then wetted thoroughly and laced on to the pot with strips of hide, the inside of the skin being outermost. The method of lacing was as follows. A double ring of hide strips was made, just large enough to fit the flat base of the pot. A strip of skin, wetted and rolled between the palms of the hands, was passed through a hole made on one side of the circular piece and attached to the ring of hide. Then to the opposite side of the circular skin a second strip was fastened, and this also was secured to the hide ring. This lacing was similarly continued all round the drum until the ‘head’ was evenly stretched over the opening. It was then allowed to dry. Meanwhile, the native obtained a piece of reed, about eighteen inches long and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and this he carefully smoothed wherever knots occurred. He then squatted down upon the ground, placing the ingungu before him, and held the reed vertically upon the drum-skin. Wetting his fingers in a pot of water beside him, he drew those of either hand alternately down the reed, causing it to vibrate strongly. The vibration of the reed was communicated to the drum, which responded with a roaring sound of considerable carrying power. From time to time he wetted his fingers afresh. I learned that in more recent times an iron pot has been used in place of the imbiza. Sometimes the player will lean over the ingungu, and will steady the reed with his chest, or even with his mouth. Again, a second native may pour water upon the reed while the performer is playing upon the ingungu. Under these circumstances the drum head gets very wet. The Zulu who demonstrated this method of performance insisted that the ingungu must be dried in the sun after use. The instrument which was played upon this occasion is in my possession. It is of large size, being about a foot in diameter, and the reed is two feet long and three-quarters of an inch thick. I have also a drawing of the omula dance, in which the ingungu was used, which was drawn by a young Zulu who had learned to use pencil and colours. In it the player is depicted performing upon a particularly large ingungu, while an attendant pours water from a calabash upon the reed. It should be noted that ngu, according to Bryant, means ‘to give forth a dull booming noise, as a drum’. Figure 2.8 shows a Zulu playing upon the ingungu, which he made in my presence, and Figure 2.9 shows a fine example of the instrument from Mpofana’s location, near Greytown, Natal. In this specimen (which is 7¾ inches in height) a disk of skin replaces the ring of skin strips described above. Mr. H. C. Lugg, lately magistrate at Verulam, Natal, gave me a description of the ingungu which endorsed what I myself have observed, adding some extremely valuable information regarding the occasion of its use. It was employed, he said, only at the omula ceremony at which a young woman was initiated into the marriage state by her father. At this ceremony a goat was slaughtered, and the girl was sprinkled with the contents of the gallbladder, the bladder itself, inflated by air, being worn on her head. Next day a beast was slaughtered for her, and its skin was used for the ingungu. After the ceremony the skin was removed, but not destroyed, nor was the pot. The omula ceremony has been well described by Bryant. The ingungu, it will be seen, is a true friction drum, and, moreover, an example of a friction drum in which the reed is not permanently attached to the drum skin. Since, as has been shown, the instrument itself is not permanent, the ingungu would appear to be the survival of an early stage in the evolution of this type of drum, in which the reed or cord which is made to vibrate is usually attached to the skin.⁴²

Figure 2.8. Zulu playing upon the ingungu. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Figure 2.9. Zulu friction drum, called ingungu. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Figure 2.10. Venda khamelo, or milking-jug, and murumbu, a drum. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

A type of drum more frequently met with in Africa consists of a conical resonator of wood or other material (with or without an opening at the base) covered with a single ‘head’ of hide. This type is found among the Venda, Pedi, Chwana, and Sotho of Basutoland. The Venda form of the instrument, which is called murumbu, is carved from a single piece of soft wood, movambangona, mofula, or mukonde being popular. It is made by a wood-carver, and the usual tools, the adze and chisel, are used for fashioning the instrument, and sometimes for decorating it. The height of the drum is usually about twenty-four inches, though the diameter at the top varies from ten to twelve inches. The ‘head’ is generally of ox-hide, and is pegged on to the drum while wet, hide strips being afterwards laced between the pegs. The head is tightened by being wetted and placed in the sun or before a fire. The shape of the instrument is significant, as it follows almost exactly that of the khamelo or milking-jug, which is also carved out of wood. The presence of the large handle in both drum and jug emphasizes the similarity, as also does the position in which both are used; for the khamelo is held between the legs of the operator when he is milking a cow, and the murumbu is likewise held between the legs of the performer while it is being played. The drum, however, has an opening at the base, while the milking-jug is closed. This apparent connexion between milking-jug and drum may be compared with the similar connexion between the //hoes and the /khais of the Hottentots described above (vide p. 25). A typical khamelo (10½ inches in height) and murumbu of the Venda are shown in Figure 2.10, and two specially carved specimens of the murumbu will be seen to the right and left in Figures 2.17 and 2.18. In performance the player standing, holds the instrument firmly between her legs, and taps it with a clean staccato action with the tips of the fingers or palms of either hand. Two distinct types of sound are elicited from the murumbu, the first being produced by the flat palm striking the ‘head’ near the centre, and the second by the tips of the fingers striking it near the rim. A great variety of rhythms is executed by combining these strokes in different ways.

Figure 2.11. Venda girls playing upon the murumbu. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

The instrument is always played by women. Typical performers will be seen in Figure 2.11. A musical example of the use of the murumbu will be seen in the description of the reed-flute ensembles of the Venda on p. 219.

The same kind of drum, made and played in similar fashion, is found among the Bakwebo and Balubedu, who inhabit the valleys near Duivels Kloof, not far from Tzaneen in the northern Transvaal. These people have borrowed many practices from the Venda, who are their northern neighbours. The name given by the Bakwebo to the instrument is tutumedjo.

Similar instruments are found among the Pedi and also among the Chwana. There are, however, slight differences in manufacture and in use to be observed. The Pedi drum, which is called moropa, is, like that of the Venda, hollowed out of a single block of wood, usually from the marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra), the trunk of which is often of considerable size. The maker is generally a specialist wood-carver, and he uses tools similar to those employed by the Venda carver. The resonator is conical and is always greater in length than in breadth, though there is considerable variation in size between different drums. One or two ‘ears’ are left standing out from the solid wood of the resonator, and a hole is bored through them. A riem is reeved through the hole, so that the instrument may be readily carried from place to place. There is always an opening at the base of the drum. The head is of koodoo (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) or ant-bear (Orycteropus afer) skin, from which the hair has been removed. It is drawn over the drum while wet, and is pegged in position, the pegs being driven into holes made round the rim of the resonator, although in exceptional cases they are carved out of the solid wood. The ‘head’ is strained in the usual manner, by the heat of the sun’s rays or of a fire. The player, a woman, either holds the instrument under the left arm or places it before her on the ground, with the ‘head’ forward, and strikes it with a sharp staccato action, with the tips of the fingers or of a single finger of either hand, with the palm of the hand, or with the ‘heel’ of the hand. The pitch of the drum may be temporarily altered by the pressure of the hand, and this is systematically done, the resultant music being melodic as well as rhythmic. Typical drum rhythms, exemplifying this ‘melodic’ use of the moropa, which I heard at night near Schoonord, in Sekukuniland, northeast Transvaal, are as follows:

Figure 2.12. Pedi drum, called moropa. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

These examples were executed upon a single drum, the difference in pitch in each instance being achieved by pressure upon the drum-head. The moropa is also used to summon the girls of the tribe to the gathering-place which has been appointed for the koma, or girls’ initiation ceremony. The witch-doctor sometimes orders the women to play the moropa in order to assist him in exorcizing an evil spirit which has ‘possessed’ some unfortunate native. This practice is comparable to that referred to in the case of the Swazi intambula, and it will be discussed again in connexion with the mantshomane of the Thonga. The drum-head becomes slack when there is moisture in the air, and cannot be played unless it is tightened by drying. The people do not seem to associate the cause with the effect, but I have heard that frequently the doctor does, and uses the phenomenon as a means of determining when to hold a rain-making ceremony. In Figure 2.12 a typical Pedi moropa is shown. This instrument, which is in my own collection, was made in 1879 on the occasion of the Sekukuni Rebellion. It was collected by Mr. W. G. Barnard of Sekukuniland, who was informed that it has had three heads, the first, the original one, being fitted in 1879, when the drum was made, the second being put on in 1900, and the third and most recent, in 1914. Traces of the heads put on in 1879 and 1900 still remain on the drum. The dates would appear to be significant! Figure 12.13 shows a typical Pedi woman performing upon the moropa.

At the location of Chief Mohlaba, near Thabina in the northern Transvaal, whose people consist chiefly of Thonga with an admixture of Sotho, and at that of Chief Valtyn Makapaan, close to Potgietersrust, also in the northern Transvaal, whose subjects call themselves Ndebele, I witnessed performances by reed-flute ensembles in which drums of the moropa type were used, although the technique employed was clearly influenced by Venda practice. At Mohlaba’s these drums were made from marula wood, carved into a hemispherical shape, with one ear pierced with a hole to accommodate a riem by which the drum might be carried. A narrow projection, shaped like a truncated cone, formed the base, and through it was pierced the opening into the resonator. The heads were of cowskin pegged to the shell by pegs called notu, and a band of hide, called makuda, encircled the pegs to assist in keeping the head in position. Four drums were in use, the largest being called gedzo, the second, beguri, and the third and fourth tutumedjo and magodi respectively. The largest drum was beaten with a long stick shaped like a rather thin knobkerrie; the others were beaten with the palms of the hands. The drumstick was named malama, and was made from moroto wood. The word used for ‘beating’ the drum was gediza. These drums are always used by women.

Figure 2.13. Pedi woman playing upon the moropa. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Figure 2.14. Sotho (Bas.) moropa, made from clay. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

The Sotho of Basutoland, following the custom of their Transvaal progenitors, make and play a drum of similar type, though manufactured from different materials. This instrument, which is rarely seen nowadays, is called, like its prototype, moropa. It has been described by Casalis.⁴³ I myself have examined three specimens, which are preserved in the Natal Government Museum, Pietermaritzburg, the South African Museum, Capetown, and in my own collection. All three are made of clay, after the manner of a pot. The first is a bowl-shaped vessel with a broad projecting base portion on which the pot stands, the bottom of which has been knocked out after manufacture. The other two have a much slenderer base, pierced with a hole which obviously has been made during manufacture. All three are covered with skin which has been secured to the pot by many irregular criss-cross lacings of strips of skin. They are all similar in size, my own specimen, which is shown in Figure 2.14, measuring nine inches in height and eight and a half inches in diameter at the top. This form of moropa is used in Basutoland at the bale or initiation ceremony of the Sotho girls. It is played by initiated women only, at the commencement of the ceremony, which begins in the springtime, at which season of the year the young girls are summoned to the initiation schools; and also at the final festivities which mark the close of those schools. The duration of the schools varies according to the amount of food available and the number of girls who are undergoing initiation. The moropa is not destroyed or even dismantled after the ceremony, but is carefully preserved. The specimens which I have examined are all of considerable age; my own example, which I procured direct from the old woman who owned it, being, according to her information, about fifty years old. It was collected on the hills above Botsabelo Leper Institution, near Maseru in Basutoland. The old woman stated that she did not make the moropa herself; it was made by a relative who was skilled in these things. The clay resonator was specially made for use as a moropa. The ‘head’ was of buckskin with the hair removed. According to an old Sotho who accompanied me, the Sotho of olden times used to make the moropa from the milking-jug of wood, called khamelo (cf. the /khais of the Korana and the murumbu of the Venda), and only began to use clay when suitable wood began to get scarce in Basutoland.

According to Martin,⁴⁴ the moropa was placed on two stones before the player, and beaten with the hands. My own observation has shown me that usually the performer places the moropa on her lap, and in that position strikes it with the palms of her hands. The skin is tightened before performance in the usual manner. Figure 2.15 shows a typical moropa player photographed in Basutoland. I have obtained evidence that the clay moropa is known to the Sotho of the Orange Free State, natives at Kroonstad, Ficksburg, and Bethlehem having described it; but no specimens are to be found in that area, so far as I have been able to find out.

Yet another form of the moropa, used for a similar purpose to the form just described, is met with, though rarely, among the Pedi of the Transvaal. This drum, which is a secret instrument, is made secretly by the women, and is played in secret by initiated old women only. This instrument, which is called moshupiane, is generally made of wood, and it is shaped like a bowl. There is no opening at the base. Another type is built up of staves, like a barrel, with this difference, that the staves meet at the bottom. Cowhide is bound over the whole instrument, with the exception of the opening over which the drum-head proper is strained. The ‘head’ is of goatskin, and is lashed in position by a thong which encircles the rim, a groove having been made to prevent it from slipping. Figure 2.16 shows a specimen of the first (the more usual) type, which was with great difficulty obtained by Mr. W. P. Barnard, of Sekukuniland. It is 6¼ inches in height and 6¼ inches in diameter at the top. No example of the second type could be secured.

Figure 2.15. Sotho (Bas.) woman playing upon the clay moropa. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

Figure 2.16. Pedi friction drum, called moshupiane. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

The moshupiane is used in connexion with the female koma, or initiation ceremony of the Pedi girls. When the girls have completed one stage of the ceremony, they are escorted home at nightfall by a number of initiated women, who surround them and completely conceal the old woman who carries and sounds the moshupiane. This old woman holds the instrument under her left arm, and with a bundle of kafir-corn stalks tied together when dry, but wetted for performance, she rubs the ‘head’ counter-clockwise, when the moshupiane emits a weird screaming sound. It is only used on this occasion, and when the party arrives at the kraal the drum is burned. Should the initiates ask what the sound is which they hear, they are told that it is the spirit of the hills which has been guarding them and which is returning to its haunts again. This spirit is supposed to be in the form of a bird, the night-owl. No boy or man will impart any information about the moshupiane, since it belongs to the women.

The moshupiane, it will be seen, is a true friction drum of an elementary nature. Its use may be compared with that of the ingungu of the Zulu (vide p. 34), and also with the hand-struck moropa of clay, used in the female initiation ceremonies by the women of Basutoland.

A drum of much larger size, and quite different in construction and in use from all those hitherto described, is found only among the Venda of the Northern Transvaal and their immediate neighbours, who have manifestly borrowed it from them. This is the ngoma, a single-headed drum with a hemispherical resonator carved out of solid wood. In constructing these instruments, a suitable soft-wooded tree (movambangoma, mofula, mukonde or marula) is felled, and a piece of the trunk of the requisite size cut off. The ‘shell’ of the drum is then cut out of this piece, the instrument being fashioned across the grain, (as shown below). The carving, which is undertaken by a skilled specialist, is done with adzes, axes, and chisels of iron. The upper portion of the drum is ornamented with four ‘handles’ which interlace in pairs, the space between the handles being filled by a band of carving in relief. One particularly large ngoma at the kraal of Chief Sibasa has a plaque on which human figures have been carved between the handles. This drum is, however, of recent manufacture, having been made in 1929, and cannot be regarded as typical. Stayt (1930)⁴⁵ says that six ‘handles’ are sometimes to be found on the ngoma. I myself have never come across a six-handled specimen; the score of examples which I have examined in different kraals in Bavendaland had four only. These ‘handles’ present a curious problem. Undoubtedly they are useful for carrying the drum, which is of considerable weight, from place to place; and on certain occasions, and under certain circumstances, the drum is suspended by two of them from a frame.

But two handles only would surely have been sufficient for either of these purposes. A close examination of the looped ‘handles’ reveals the fact that the carved portion is carried round the drum from handle to handle on a continuous band of which the handles form a part. The whole scheme suggests to me the survival, in the form of decoration, of interlaced ropes, the original function of which may have been either to secure the ‘head’ firmly to the pegs used for straining it over the drum, or perhaps to fasten the instrument on the back of some animal, just as in the case of the pairs of drums, called naqqareh, of the Arabs, and kindred drums. The fact that among the Venda these drums are on most occasions used in pairs lends colour to the suggestion. A narrow circular rim is left projecting from the ‘shell’ of the ngoma at its base, and in the centre of the circular space so enclosed a small hole, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, is bored through the shell. The shell itself is hollowed out until the walls are about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Holes, from two to three inches apart, are bored with a hot iron round the rim of the shell, for the reception of the pegs which are driven in to keep the head in position. The head is of cowskin, the hair having been removed from a circular patch in the centre, and it is stretched over the drum while wet. Before it is placed in position, one or more stones, called mbwedi, are dropped into the shell. These have been supplied by the doctor, and they are supposed to have come from the stomach of the ngwenya or crocodile (Crocodilus niloticus), which animal is the totem of the Venda. To put on the drum-head one man holds the wet skin over the shell, while another drives the pegs into the wood through it. A strip of skin which surrounds the drum is also held in place by these pegs. This strip serves to ‘trim’ the drum, at the same time keeping those portions of the head that are between the pegs in position. Finally, the shell is well rubbed with a red ochre, which gives the drum a characteristic colour. Stayt gives the following names of the various parts of the ngoma. The woodwork or shell of the drum is gumba la poho, which means ‘the egg of an ostrich’; the ‘handles’ are maghona vha lucheli, or ‘a frog’s knee’; the opening at the base of the shell is ndila, meaning ‘the vagina, or road’; the ‘head’ of the drum is lukhanda la munna, or ‘the skin of a man’; the smooth hairless circular portion in the centre of the ‘head’ is thuvunga ya ngoma ya mwana, or ‘a baby’s fontanelle’; the pegs which secure the ‘head’ to the drum are munwe, ‘the fingers’; while the drumstick, or beater, is known as tshanda tsha muthu, or ‘the hand of a person’. I myself have found that many Venda call the drumstick tshiombo, the name also applied to the beater of the mbila (vide p. 73).

As the manufacture of the ngoma is a long and difficult process, the cost of an instrument is high, being one ox or its equivalent, about five pounds. I have known even higher prices asked for an ngoma, but only for newly made specimens. Old instruments are exceedingly difficult to obtain, since they have all been ‘doctored’, and are tribal rather than individual possessions. The ngoma is sounded by being struck with a single beater of hardwood. Two specimens large and small, which are beautifully decorated, are shown in Figures 2.17 and 2.18. These are from Chief Masekwa’s kraal, and are among the largest examples to be seen in Bavendaland.

Figure 2.17. Venda ngoma and murumbu. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

Figure 2.18. Venda ngoma and murumbu. Photograph by P. R. KIRBY.

These instruments are usually played by women and girls, although the large ngoma, when the tshikona or national reed-flute dance is being performed, is generally played by a man, as is also the case when the drum is being played at the domba ceremony, or preparation of the young people for marriage. On both these occasions special modes of beating, demanding special skill, are employed. During the tshikona two ngoma are used, one being larger than the other. The larger is called ngoma nkulu, or the great ngoma, and the smaller is named thungwa. The names appear, however, to be relative, and applicable to the function of the drums in the music. The thungwa player keeps a steady beat throughout, while the ngoma nkulu player executes rhythmic variations. A musical example of these beats will be found in my description of the reed-flute ensembles of the Venda (vide p. 219).

The uses of the ngoma are manifold, and Stayt thus describes a number of them.⁴⁵ It is employed as an accompaniment to the dances performed at the vhushu, or menstruation ceremony of the girls; and also as a signal, during certain portions of this ceremony, to warn men to keep away from the women, who are naked. It is also beaten to summon the initiates to the domba ceremony, at which the young people are taught everything pertaining to sex, and it is significant that sex matters are actually called dzingoma, or drums. At this ceremony, the nemengoza, a man who is in charge of the school of initiates, has in his care three sticks which are supposed to protect the school from evil influences. These he must keep in his hand, while the dancing is being carried on; but between the dances he may lay them upon the drums, and nowhere else. Another characteristic fact connected with the domba is that if the ‘sacred’ fire which has been lit by the doctor, and which is an essential feature of the ceremony, which takes place between sunset and sunrise, is allowed to die out, proceedings must stop and the drums must be reversed, while the doctor relights it with his firesticks. Yet another strange practice is that on the third night of the domba each initiate in turn must sit upon the ngoma, while the master of ceremonies sings matundi kwo dizula which means ‘the male first sits balanced’. When it is being played for the domba dances, the ngoma, as has been said, is suspended from a frame consisting of two poles about four feet high, with forked tops, which have been driven into the ground, and which carry a horizontal pole from which the drums hang.

The chief’s own drum is called ngoma khosi, and this term is also applied to one of the so-called ‘age sets’ in the social grouping of the Venda, which was, originally, a military grading of the boys, the members of which formed a ‘regiment’ for working or fighting. When the chief pays a visit to a kraal, he is greeted by the men who chant his praises, and by the ‘ululation’ of the women. If pleased, he beats the ngoma nkulu in the tshikona or reed-flute dance given in his honour. The spirits of departed chiefs have, like their living successors, their war-drums; and Venda tradition states that sometimes the sound of a war-drum, beaten by spirits, is heard proceeding from Pepiti Falls. A special manner of beating the drum was formerly employed to gather the people together in time of war, and another to signalize a victory after a fight.

Many of these practices observed and described by Stayt I have observed myself, together with several others. Those connected with the tshikona will be found in my description of that dance (vide 216). Another connects the ngoma with rain-making. At the kraal of Chief Sibasa, the paramount chief of the Venda, there is a very old ngoma which hangs from a frame in the quarters of the witch-doctor, who is of the Thonga race. This instrument was formerly used as a war-drum in the days when there was fighting in the northern Transvaal. It is now, however, used when there is a drought, and it is beaten by the chief himself in order to bring rain. If beaten by him, rain will fall within three days. The sound of the drum is like thunder; and thunder generally precedes rain! I was permitted to see this drum but was forbidden to touch it, since to white men it is taboo. These drums are usually kept under the narrow ‘verandah’ of one of the sleeping huts, so that they may be protected from rain; but in the dry season they are frequently left in the khoro or open meeting-place of the kraal. There they are available for practice when not required for official or ceremonial use; and I have seen at several kraals numbers of young girls seriously rehearsing the beats of the various dances. On such occasions one player kneels before the small drum, or thungwa, which rests on the ground in front of her, and sounds a steady succession of even beats with great force, holding the beater in either hand, and even changing it from hand to hand at her convenience. An older player, standing, takes the larger drum, or ngoma nkulu, tilts it into a slanting position with the left hand, and with the right hand grasping the beater, executes rhythmic variations upon it. The right hand only is used for this purpose.

The Venda ngoma has been adopted by certain of the Sotho-Chwana of the north-western Transvaal. The Rev. Noel Roberts⁴⁷ described the instruments as made and used by the Bagananoa of Malaboch’s kraal prior to the storming of that chief’s stronghold and his final surrender to the Republican troops in 1894. Two sets of these drums are privately owned; one being a full set of five, and the other consisting of two only. These drums were called dikomana, and they were used for war and for magical purposes connected with fertility rites. Roberts emphasizes the fact that they were quite distinct from the usual moropa. Moreover, they were invariably consecrated by human sacrifice, which custom is, according to Roberts, enshrined in the Segananoa proverb ‘The man who makes the dikomana will see them with his eyes, but he will never hear them with his ears’. They were supposed to be ‘possessed’ or inhabited by the tribal spirit, and they were consequently jealously guarded, and hidden in a special hut. A note by Mrs. Franz states that at certain times libations of beer were offered by being poured upon the largest drum of the set. The set of five was called a ‘herd’, and the individual drums were named moradu, or the ‘big cow’ of the herd (the largest of the set), pau, maditsi, todiane, and bo-pampane. Like the Venda ngoma, these drums were carved from solid pieces of timber, with the handles characteristic of the drums of that people. The bo-pampane, however, had but one handle. The instruments varied in size, the largest having a diameter of eighteen inches, and the others diminishing in size, down to seven inches in the case of the smallest. The moradu and maditsi had a band of carving encircling the shell as in the case of the Bavenda ngoma; the remaining three were without ornament of any kind. One of the drums contained a pebble, and another a part of the femur of some animal. All the drums had ‘heads’ of undressed ox-hide. This set of dikomana was reputed to be over three hundred years old. I imagine, however, that their age has been considerably overestimated. Everything about them suggests Venda influence; the hemispherical shape, the characteristic handles, the carving, the pebble contained in one of them, and the suggestion of ‘possession’ by the tribal spirit, whose propitiation by occasional libations of beer recalls the similar Venda practice connected with the reed forest at Tshaula, as well as with the baboons of Lomondo, the spirits of Lake Funduzi and those of Pepiti Falls. For these reasons, I venture to criticize Roberts’s suggestion that the dikomana appear to have been modelled on the spherical clay pots of the Sotho. These drums were used at national crises, when all men who had been initiated in the dikomana ‘degree’ would be summoned to the chief’s cattle-kraal, where a solemn service would be conducted. Invocations, accompanied by the drums, would be chanted, and two or more of the men, ‘inspired’ by the spirits, and masquerading as such, would prophesy the course to be adopted by the people, using a curious ‘squeaker’ called sitlanjani (vide p. 188) which was supposed to represent the voices of the gods. Men only participated in this ceremony, the drums therefore being beaten by men, contrary to the usual Venda and Sotho practice. There is no doubt that in the northern Transvaal drums of this type are used, as has been frequently observed in more northerly parts of Africa, for conveying messages from one district to another. Mr. Roberts has informed me of a few instances of such ‘drum-code’ messages that have come to his notice. One of these, observed among the Magato, was a signal beaten upon a drum in order to warn the men to keep away from a kraal where female puberty rites were being performed. The signal consisted of the following rhythm, which was kept up without cessation throughout the night:

I myself have heard similar signals beaten under similar circumstances in Bavendaland.

Junod⁴⁸ describes similar drums which are used by the Thonga. The largest of these is ‘made from a hollowed stem’, and is in shape ‘like an ordinary mortar; or it may be rounded, and even provided with three legs’. The head is of a buffalo, ox, or antelope hide, or of the skin of an elephant’s ear. It is called muntshintshi; or the big drum, and it is subject to several taboos, among which is one which prohibits any one from looking inside the instrument if the skin should crack. Again, at Shiluvane, East Africa, people say that a bullet is introduced into the shell when it is being made. This last may be compared with the Venda practice of placing stones in the ngoma. Regarding the uses to which this drum is put, Junod mentions three; to announce a great fatality, to summon warriors to the capital in case of imminent war, and to execute various musical performances, such as the nkino or harvest-thanksgiving dance, on which occasion it is accompanied by a smaller drum, the shikolombane, called the ‘son’ of the big one, which is more elongated and has no legs. In this dance these drums accompany the horn ensemble called bunanga (vide p. 122). As the whole idea of this ensemble very forcibly suggests Venda influence, and as the muntshintshi and shikolombane appear to be the ngoma and murumbu in disguise, I would suggest that these drums have been adopted by the Thonga from the Venda, more particularly as the Thonga have a drum of a very different nature which is associated with witchcraft, and is, moreover, characteristic of their race. This drum is called the mantshomane. It is shaped exactly like a tambourine, being made from a hoop of wood about two and a half inches wide, and about one-fifth of an inch thick, the ends being skived away, lapped, and joined by iron wire. The shaping of this hoop is done with the usual African adze. The single head is usually of goat or buckskin with the hair removed, the outer side of the skin being uppermost. This is placed in position while wet, the overlapping portions being cut into strips which are twisted into cords and laced over the under side to hold the head firmly in its place, as well as to afford a grip for the hand. In addition to this lacing pegs are driven through the skin into holes that have been made round the rim of the hoop. Two specimens of the mantshomane are shown in Figures 2.19 and 2.20. In performance the drum is held in the left hand by the hand-grip of lacing, the longer fingers reaching the under side of the head, and pressing upon it at times in order temporarily to raise the pitch of the instrument. It is beaten with a stick held in the right hand, about a foot long, the striking end being slightly flattened so that a considerable surface comes into contact with the drum-head. The resulting tone is very sharp and powerful. Usually a number of these instruments are played together, care being taken that they are tuned as nearly as possible to the same pitch, by being heated over a fire. They are played, as a rule, by women, as an accompaniment to songs or dances, although they are also used by themselves in groups as an instrumental ensemble. A band of women mantshomane players, whom I heard at Mohlaba’s location at Thabina, executed a number of drum pieces, which consisted chiefly of the long-continued repetition of one rhythm. One of these was as follows:

Figure 2.19. Thonga mantshomane, front view. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Figure 2.20. Thonga mantshomane, back view. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

The effect of this, executed by six drummers, was hypnotic and very exciting. This explains the use of the mantshomane in the exorcizing of the evil spirits which are believed to ‘possess’ certain of the Thonga from time to time. Junod⁴⁹ has given a particularly full description of the whole subject, but although he mentions a drum, and its connexion with the proceedings, he does not give its name. The mantshomane is introduced at the first stage of the exorcism, which is called gongondjela, or the drum performance. The gobela, or exorcist in chief, first ‘throws the bones’ to determine where the ceremony shall take place, and according to the way in which they fall, the drumming may be executed in the hut of the afflicted person, in the doorway of the hut, in the village square, or in the bush. The doctor strikes the first note on his drum, which is generally covered with leguan or python skin instead of goat or buckskin. Every one within hearing, on recognizing the signal, seizes hold of either a mantshomane with its beater, or, failing the proper instrument, a substitute in the shape of a petrol tin, or a calabash rattle, called ndjele (vide p. 10) and, rushing to the spot, joins in the hypnotic and frenzied rhythm which serves as an accompaniment to the songs of exorcism. The object of the gongondjela is to compel the evil spirit to reveal its name, and to come forth from the possessed person, who, as a result of the long-continued drumming and singing has gradually got into a critical state of ‘nervous exaltation’, as Junod puts it. The gongondjela often lasts for a considerable time, from a day or two to a fortnight. The performers upon the mantshomane and ndjele shown in Figure 2.21 executed the following rhythms with astonishing verve:

Figure 2.21. Thonga men playing upon mantshomane and ndjele. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

I have already pointed out that the Swazi have copied this method of exorcizing evil spirits from the Thonga, using their own intambula for the purpose, as well as tins, and I have even obtained a specimen of an actual mantshomane made and played by a ‘pure’ Swazi. This instrument, which was called ubhababa by the Swazi owner, who was a doctor, is about fifteen inches in diameter, and is covered with a goatskin which is pegged to the circular hoop, the lacing being also present at the back. The ubhababa was used to exorcize demons. The Swazi believe, like the Thonga, that these spirits, whom they also call mandiki, are the spirits of dead enemies of their race.

Major Harries⁵⁰ describes how, while encamped at Tshaula in Bavendaland (vide p. 220), he heard the distant and long-continued beating of drums, and on inquiry was told that the doctor was trying to remove an evil influence from a woman who had incurred the anger of the spirits. This is, of course, the Thonga practice, but I have no doubt that in this instance the doctor was a Thonga (although Harries does not mention the fact), since, as I shall show, Thonga doctors are highly respected all over the Transvaal, and, further, the village of Tshaula lies in that part of Bavendaland which is contiguous with Thonga territory. But the instruments used were undoubtedly Venda drums, as Harries’s account shows, and the whole ceremony, which is very fully described, clearly indicates the borrowing of a Thonga practice by the Venda. Many Thonga doctors have a great reputation outside their own country, so it is not surprising to find the mantshomane used by one of their number who has settled among people of another race. One such drum I possess; it was obtained from a doctor in Sekukuniland, the country of the Pedi. It is of large size, the head being of buckskin. The doctor who formerly owned it used to employ it in his cures, especially when he desired to remove a headache from a patient! His method of doing this was to dance up to the unfortunate and strike violent blows upon his mantshomane close to the patient’s ear-drum, when the headache was supposed to leave him! Another celebrated doctor, Resenge by name, resides at the royal kraal of Sibasa, paramount chief of the Venda. He possesses two beautiful specimens of the mantshomane, covered with python-skin (Python sebae). In 1930 I witnessed one of his séances, in which he demonstrated his powers of divination. The demonstration took place late at night inside his hut, the only light being a small wood fire. The room was crowded almost to suffocation by natives of both sexes, a number of young women whose function it was to sing being at one side. A space had been left for the doctor, who, with his wife and son, squatted on the floor. The two latter were provided with the drums which they carefully tuned, in unison, over the fire. The doctor began by smoking a pipe filled with dagga or hemp; the drums began to beat and, leaping to his feet, he began to dance, encouraged by a chant which the women struck up. The insistent rhythm of the drums

together with the drug caused the doctor’s dance to become more and more violent. He began to perspire freely and to cast aside his clothes, until he was clad only in his girdle of tails and his collar of lions’ teeth. He suddenly flung himself down on the floor of the hut, seized his pipe, and began to inhale more of the drug. This was followed by a second and a third repetition of the drumming and chanting, during which the doctor’s dance became still more unbridled; at one point he actually danced in the glowing embers without apparently being conscious of the fact. Then he fell down in what seemed to be a semi-comatose state and the drumming stopped. In a few moments he slowly raised himself up to a sitting posture, shot his right arm forward, pointing his finger towards one of the company, and began to prophesy. The remainder of his performance, although interesting in itself, is rather beyond the scope of this work; the main point being that the drums were in this case manifestly used on the doctor himself in order to induce in him a state of ecstasy favourable to his divinations.

The last type of drum found in South Africa is a cylindrical drum with two heads called isigubu. The only reference to this instrument that I have been able to trace, apart from occasional dictionary definitions, occurs in the work of the late Father Franz Mayr.⁵¹ This drum consists of a resonator, more or less cylindrical in shape, which is generally made from a hollowed-out section of some soft-wooded tree trunk with a ‘head’ of calfskin or goatskin drawn over each end, the skins being secured by a lacing of thongs which connects them with each other, after the manner of the rope in an ordinary European bass drum. The size of the isigubu varies. I have examined four specimens, the one described by Mayr, which is preserved in the Natal Government Museum, Pietermaritzburg, and which is shown in Figure 2.22; a particularly fine specimen of large size, which was used in the Zulu Rebellion of 1906; and two now in my own collection, one of which was made by a Zulu near Compensation, Natal, and the other by a Xhosa in the Transkei. According to Bryant,⁵² isigubu means a ‘gourd or calabash, emptied of its pulp and used as a beer or water vessel’, and he adds that in modern times it may mean ‘drum, as of a military band’. Colenso⁵³ contents himself with defining isigubu as a ‘hollow vessel, as a gourd or a pumpkin; drum’. But Mayr’s description adds much to our knowledge of the instrument, for not only does he tell us of the shape and size of the isigubu, but he also states that it is often made from the umsenge, or ‘Cabbage’ tree (Cussonia spicata), or from the umhlonhlo (Euphorbia grandidens), on account of the softness of their wood. He further notes that it is played with small drumsticks, which in the photograph are seen to have padded heads, a most unusual feature in South African drums. The fact that no mention of the isigubu is made by the early writers, together with the fact that it is a double-headed drum, with the heads laced together, and beaten by two padded sticks, caused me to suspect long ago that it was not an original Zulu instrument, but had been deliberately copied from the European military drum, in all probability from the bass drum. While in Pietermaritzburg in December 1931, I had an opportunity of checking this conclusion. While photographing the specimen in the Natal Government Museum, it occurred to me to ask an old Zulu who was present if he knew the instrument. Not only did he know it, but he had himself played one in his younger days. I thereupon asked him to show me how it was sounded, and he then took the isigubu, hung it round his neck, and held the sticks as shown in the photograph in Figure 2.23. This picture shows clearly.that the instrument is modelled upon the European bass drum; everything is there, the two ‘heads’, the lacing, the padded sticks, and even the swagger. The maker of my own Xhosa specimen has even aped the painted decoration of the European drum by stitching brightly-coloured cloth entirely round the ‘shell’. The isigubu is still known to-day in many parts of Natal, even as far north as St. Lucia Bay. Nowadays it is sometimes played at weddings by one of the umtimba, or bride’s party, which consists of males, as well as females, when the bride comes to her wedding dance.

Figure 2.22. Zulu isigubu and sticks. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Figure 2.23. Zulu playing upon the isigubu. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.

Dr. Vedder sent me a description of a similar double-headed drum, formerly made and played by the Herero, and called by them ongoma. It consisted of a hollow cylindrical resonator of wood fitted at each end with a ‘head’ of calfskin from which the hair had been removed. These ‘heads’ were placed upon the resonator while wet, and secured in position by strips of hide which encircled both the overlap of the ‘head’ and the resonator. To tighten the ‘head’ all that was necessary was to draw the edge from below the strip, which acted as a hoop. An alternative method was to make holes in the edges of the two ‘heads’ through which a single long strip of hide would be laced from end to end of the drum, after the fashion of the rope used on a military side-drum. This method enabled the player to obtain a more efficient straining of the ‘heads’. The ongoma was beaten with two small sticks carved after the manner of knobkerries. Only the maker of a drum might beat it, but he had no official position. However, on occasions of religious celebration among the Herero, when all the men were gathered together, a drummer would be engaged to play. The men then sat in a circle round the sacred fire. The drummer seated himself by the side of the circle, placed his drum in front of him with one of the ‘heads’ resting upon the ground, and beat upon the upper one with his sticks. Thus the ongoma was never beaten upon both sides. It was also played upon a stand, or while hung round the neck of the performer. A drummer, who was called omutone ongoma, would often be called upon to play at a wedding, when he would beat his instrument within the circle of celebrants. This performance was, however, merely intended to give pleasure; it had not any ceremonial significance. At the ceremonies engaged in by sorcerers the ongoma played no part, being considered of no consequence. It was likewise never used in tribal dances.

1Borcherds, P. B., Autobiographical Memoir, Capetown, 1861, pp. 114–15.

2Burchell, W. J., Travels in the Interior of South Africa, London, 1824, vol. ii, pp. 65–7.

3Stow, G. W., The Native Races of South Africa, London, 1905, p. 110.

4In the South African Public Library, Capetown. I quote from it by permission of the Trustees of the Library.

5Backhouse, J., Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa, London, 1844, p. 445.

6Bleek, W. H. I., and Lloyd, L., Bushman Folklore, London, 1911, p. 351.

7Bleek, D. F., The Naron, Cambridge, 1928, p. 22.

8 Dapper, O., Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten, &c, Amsterdam, 1668, p. 653b.

9Schreyer, J., Neue ost-indianische Reisebeschreibung, &c. Leipzig, 1681; reprinted in Reisebeschreibungen von deutschen Beamten und Kriegsleuten, &c, Haag, 1931, p. 38.

10Grevenbroeck, J. G., Latin MS. in South African Public Library, Capetown. In Dutch translation, by Van Oordt, in Het Z.A. Tijdschrift, Kaapstad, Feb. 1886, p. 7.

11Thunberg, C. P., Les Voyages de Thunberg, Paris, 1796, vol. i, p. 233.

12Kolbe, P., Caput Bonae Spei Hodiernum, Nürnberg, 1719, p. 528a.

13Le Vaillant, F., Voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Afrique, Paris, 1790, vol. ii, pp. 248–9; English translation, London, 1790, vol. ii, pp. 128–9.

14Sparrman, A., Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, second edition, London, 1786, vol. i, pp. 229, 355.

15Mahillon, V., Catalogue du Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire de Bruxelles, Gand, 1912, vol. iv, p. 167.

16Arbousset, T., and Daumas, F., Relation d’un voyage, &c, Paris, 1842, p. 54; English translation, London, 1852, p. 54.

17Ibid., Paris, 1842, pp. 487–8; London, 1852, p. 353.

18Mahillon, V., Catalogue du Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire de Bruxelles, Gand, 1912, vol. iv, p. 3.

19Kirby, P. R., ‘The Music and Musical Instruments of the Korana’, in Bantu Studies, Johannesburg, 1932, vol. vi, No. 2, p. 183.

20Berliner Missionsberichte, No. 1, Jan. 1852, p. 17.

21Alexander, J. E., Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa, London, 1838, vol. ii, pp. 182–3.

22 Moodie, J. W. D., Ten Years in South Africa, London, 1835, vol. ii, pp. 250–1.

23Campbell, J., Travels in South Africa, London, 1815, p. 433.

24Shaw, B., Memorials of South Africa, London, 1840, p. 44.

25Rose, C, Four Years in Southern Africa, London, 1829, p. 146.

26Maclean, J., Compendium of Kafir Law and Custom, Mount Coke, 1858, p. 159.

27Bryant, A. T., Zulu–English Dictionary, Pietermaritzburg, 1905, (bula and is-angoma).

28Kropf, A., Kafir–English Dictionary, Lovedale, 1899; second edition, 1915.

29Tongue, M. H., Bushman Paintings, Oxford, 1909, Plates XIV and XV.

30Cook, A. W., ‘History and Izibonga of the Swazi Chiefs’, in Bantu Studies, Johannesburg, 1931, vol. v, No. 2, p. 198, ll. 25–6.

31Harries, C. L., The Sacred Baboons of Lomondo, Johannesburg, 1929, p. 11.

32Alberti, L., De Caffers aan de Zuidkust van Afrika, Amsterdam, 1810, p. 159.

33Rose, C, Four Years in Southern Africa, London, 1829, p. 141.

34Lichtenstein, H., Reisen im südlichen Africa, Berlin, 1812, vol. i, p. 441.

35Chase, J. C, Natal Papers, Grahamstown, 1843 (Part I), pp. 129–30.

36Kropf, A., Kafir–English Dictionary, Lovedale, 1899; second edition, 1915.

37Döhne, J. L., Zulu–English Dictionary, Capetown, 1857.

38Davis, W. J., A Dictionary of the Kaffir Language, London, 1872, Part I, Kaffir–English.

39Colenso, J. W., Zulu–English Dictionary, Pietermaritzburg, 1878.

40Bryant, A. T., Zulu–English Dictionary, Pietermaritzburg, 1905.

41Samuelson, R. C., King Cetewayo Zulu Dictionary, Durban, 1923.

42Balfour, H., ‘The Friction-Drum’, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1907, vol. xxxvii, pp. 67–92, and Plates xii–xiv.

43Casalis, E., Les Bassoutos, Paris, 1859, pp. 155–6.

44Martin, M., Basutoland, its Legends and Customs, London, 1903, p. 48.

45Stayt, H. A., The BaVenda, Oxford, 1931, p. 53.

46 Ibid., passim.

47Roberts, N., ‘Bantu Methods of Divination’, in South African Journal of Science, Johannesburg, 1916, vol. xiii, p. 406.

48Junod, H. A., Life of a South African Tribe, second edition, London, 1927, vol. i, pp. 430.

49Ibid. pp. 479–504.

50Harries, C. L., The Sacred Baboons of Lomondo, Johannesburg, 1929, pp. 172–4.

51Mayr, F., ‘A Short Study on Zulu Music’, in Annals of the Natal Government Museum, London, 1908, vol. i, Part 3, pp. 259–60.

52Bryant, A. T., Zulu–English Dictionary, Pietermaritzburg, 1905.

53Colenso, J. W., Zulu–English Dictionary, Pietermaritzburg, 1878.

Figure 3.1. Calabash resonators of Venda mbila. Photograph by W. P. PAFF.