Except during funerals when men of the farmer caste may beat a drum to accompany a dirge, drums are always played by men of the smith-potter caste.

1. Dang  Double-headed cylindrical snare (Ganga-type) drum covered with goatskin and beaten at one end with a bent drum stick and/or with the hand. Tension is adjusted by touching the skin at the other end of the drum. The most common drum at Sukur, it is beaten by Zligum at community ceremonies, and isfrequently played at funerals, during communal farming work parties (zozowa), threshing, and on other occasions.

2. Ruwidang   The hourglass (Kalangu or squeeze-type) drum played with a bent wooden drumstick or with the hands. The tension of the skins is varied by squeezing the longitudinal thongs that connect the skins with the forearm. Ii is by this means that in other societies, for example among the Yoruba, these drums are made to 'talk.' At Sukur a drum of this type is played by Tlagama in various ceremonies. Other musicians play it at dances held for general amusement during the dry season and probably on other occasions. Click here for further information on this type of drum.

The dang and ruwidang played by Zligum and Tlagama at the Yawal ceremony are heard on this clip                   

 

In a Yawal procession the drummer on the left plays a ruwidang. The drums being carried on the musicians' heads are a dang and (I think) a tim kettle drum -- note the bent drumstick. In front of the tim, Zliguum beats a dang which is mostly obscured by the man on the right of the picture.

 

 

 

 

A dang drum is played during a dance that forms part of Kurang's La festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Tim  This is a wooden kettle (Tambari-type) drum with a single drumhead beaten with a bent drumstick. The type is often associated with royalty. In certain ceremonies Sukur it is played by the junior Tlufu. During the driving out of bad spirits in the Zoku festival he beats it while carrying it on his head.

Kurang musicians adjust the tension on a tim drumhead by means of its leather thongs

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Nggwu   A tall ground-standing drum made of a hollowed tree trunk and beaten with two hands. While particularly associated with Damay, it is played on at least one occasion during the initiation ceremony when a smith-potter leads the initiates away to a shrine in Dunggom ward.

Two nggwu drums at the home of the senior member of the Mariyam clan, often known in Sukur as Damay. His son is refurbishing the drum on the right for the initiation ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

III. Idiophones

Idiophones are naturally sonorous objects. Their vibrations are inherent in the material and are produced by being struck, shaken, scraped, rubbed, and elsewhere blown. At Sukur most are commonly and in some cases only played by girls and women.

A dang drummer

1. Makokwoy  A long pubic apron made of chains of iron rings, worn by women and girls and played by rubbing calabash sherds down them. They are played at some but not all dances, including at funerals. As Sukur pubic aprons are of fiber or iron spikes, it seems likely that makokwoy were introduced to Sukur from an outside source, perhaps the Kapsiki.

This music in the next clip was recorded at the funeral ceremony of Kwoyni Gwosa, and old lady married to Kwoyni Donyima, genealogically the oldest of the Dur clan, and one of our best informants on Sukur history. Higi musicians had been hired for this occasion and play drums and Higi shilla flutes. They are accompanied by makokwoy.


A Higi dang drummer and a guitar player at Kwoyni Gwosa's funeral. Two of the women behind them, including the one in the yellow T-shirt are holding but not playing makokwoy.

 

 

 

2. Makokwoy-dlir  An iron anklet rattle containing a pellet and said to be no longer used.

3. Muldlë  Ankle rattles made of palm frond packets containing pebbles. We were told that they are worn by women at Sukur in festival dances, as for example when a bull is slaughtered. However, the only examples we remember seeing were worn by the Damay manggaray player seen in an image above. The sound they make is called cecwa.

4. Mbambazey-xidi  Banana-shaped iron envelopes with a loop for attachment at one end. They are of the same shape as a common type of amulet but in this instance are worn as a bunch around the wrist of the chief and also on his iron staff. They contain no pellets but jingle together.