I am a djembefola (one who plays djembe drums). I learned to play these drums (also known as talking drums) at the age of ten. An older man who lived in my neighborhood in the South Bronx had studied African drumming, and he was kind enough to hand down all that he knew about this tradition. To this day, I enjoy every opportunity to play my djembe drums, especially on Wednesday nights when I join thirty to forty drummers in an outdoor drum circle in Florida. We come together with a shared passion for making music. It’s that simple.
To me, the drum circle is a reminder of the power of diversity. In the circle there are people of all ages from very different backgrounds—some Black, some White, some Latino, some highly skilled, and some beginners. We hang out together for three hours. There is no tension. No judgment about who plays better than the other. Each of us joins together to create a wonderful display of multiculturalism at its finest. We drum ourselves into oblivion, all of us sharing the same single-minded objective of making music.
African drumming is hypnotic, something that can be an out-of-body experience. I improvise
