Pressing patrons with proverbs: Talking drums at the Tamale markets1
Genesis and distribution of drum proverbs in Dagbon
When a new chief is "enskinned," invited drummers gather to perform for the special event. Often the new chief already has a proverbial name or favorite proverb, which he has told beforehand to his neighborhood drummers. The lead lunga drummer arranges the proverb into a musical pattern for the ensemble, dividing long proverbs into call and response parts.
How do other drummers learn a new drum name? Through social interaction at the market, drummers will publicly press a family member of the new chief; other drummers hear something they do not recognize and ask what the drum is saying. In this way, the new drum name is distributed around the area where the chief's family is most likely to be seen (and pressed). Potential profit determines potential repertoire of drummed proverbs.
A drummer usually does not create the proverb which is to be drummed--it is supplied by the patron. The drummer then takes the speech sounds as raw material and shapes them into a pleasing, memorable, and musical form.
In theory, any Dagbamba person can give any Dagbani words to a lead drummer to make a praise name. I conducted two trials with Abdullai, giving phrases from a jinjeling song. Abdullai created lunga and gungon parts immediately--he did not even take a full minute to think about it. He claimed that all other master drummers in Dagbon would be able to recognize the words upon the first hearing, but would have to inquire which patron the words were meant for. This claim was not verified and is unlikely considering the evidence from other speech surrogate systems (Neeley 1994).
The state of Dagbon covers an area of roughly 8,000 square miles (Oppong 1973:13). Dagbon has more than 1,000 villages, each with one or more chiefs. There are also divisional chiefs and paramount (regional) chiefs. Several thousand chiefs are in power today. When the number of chief butchers and drummers is added to the total, it is seen that thousands of proverbial drum names are being used by people currently alive, and each proverb is probably drummed for numerous members of the patron's family. The Dagbamba kingdom became established in the fifteenth century.4 Over a dozen generations have passed, each one bringing more chiefs in all of the villages. Altogether, it is likely that 10,000 or more proverbial drum names have been created and used over the centuries. Even professional drummers with their prodigious memories cannot remember all of these, much less connect them with all of the correct faces. Drummers primarily learn the appellations they themselves will likely drum for potential patrons. Since the drummed proverbs are specific to individuals, they will be known and used primarily in the particular areas where the individuals reside. Correspondingly, the economics of pressing patrons play the major part in deciding which drum patterns and proverbs will be heard in which area of Dagbon.
A question can be raised concerning how many drummed proverbs are actually understood by how many people. The answer is that the drum language is understood by those concerned to the level of their immediate concern; if someone in your family has a drum name, and it is played for you, you will probably recognize the sound pattern and be able to verbally interpret it, but will not necessarily be able to do this for drum names connected with other families. A good drummer may know a hundred or more praise proverbs, but a patron may recognize only the one connected with his family.
Attention will now be turned to some specific examples of drummed proverbs, focusing on linguistic, musical, personal, and metaphorical relations of each proverb.