Female Shoulder Drum

For the Bidjogos, more than for many other peoples of Africa, the drum is the most direct means of communicating with the spirits. The sound of kumbonki, groove drum, is for them the voice of the ancestors. The sound of the drum is a perfectly coded language that is only known to the initiates. The drum participates in all those festivities or occasions on which the presence of spirits or ancestors is necessary, in the male rites of initiation, in the true funeral rites initiation of the deceased to prepare their access to the afterlife, and even rites in which the spirits are questioned to find out the causes of a certain death. It is the voice through which it manifests itself in ancestor.

Drum played by some girls who have hung on their shoulder in the female ceremonies of initiation, com or can be seen in the photograph. This drum has been used until very recently in the female initiations of the island of Bubaque. Patina for use.