The drum plays fundamental roles in the cultural life of the people. It performs multifarious functions that are noted in the soul of the community as the ritual symbolism of the people.
Egun Sato drums are very important in the cultural history of the people of Badagry. The Sato drums are male and female single headed drums constructed with the Atin-Iroko tree and the membrane covering the drum is the skin of an Antelope. The Egun Sato drums are played during festivals and ceremonies.
A minimum of two people dance round the drums and jump high to beat them at intervals. Sato drummers are usually stimulated by gbehun drums and a metal gong.
The study was designed to examine in details the origin and facts about Egun Sato drums, its relevance to the people of Badagry in Lagos State, Nigeria and it is believed that at the end of the study, the origin and facts about Egun Sato drums will be known, the traditional importance of Egun Sato drums to the people of Badagry will be known and the importance of drums in African tradition and to humanity at large will be identified.
Drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player’s hands, or with a drum stick, to produce sound. There is usually a resonance head on the underside of the drum, typically tuned to a slightly lower pitch than the top drumhead. Other techniques have been used to cause drums to make sound, such as the thumb roll. Drums are the world’s oldest and most ubiquitous musical instruments, and the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.
African drums hold a special place in the history of Africa. In Western culture, the idea of drumming is nearly always associated with entertainment or just to add to the musical quality of a song. In Africa, drums hold a deeper symbolic and historical meaning.
Drums are almost always an accompaniment for any manner of ceremony – births, deaths, marriages – together with a ritual dance. The vicious sound of many drums pounding together is also a necessary installment to stir up emotions in a battle or war to inspire excitement and passion.
The Djembe drum is possibly the most influential and basic of all the African drums, originally. It dates back to 500 A.D. The Djembe was originally created as a sacred drum to be used in healing ceremonies, rites of passage, ancestral worship, warrior rituals, as well as social dances. The drum rhythm of the Djembe is performed in the evening for most celebrations, especially during full moon, spring, summer and winter harvesting time, weddings, baptisms, honouring of mothers, immediately after Ramadaan (the month of fast for all Muslims) or countless other celebrations.
In many parts of Africa, certain drums symbolise and protect royalty and are often housed in sacred dwellings. In fact you could say the drum was actually the first form of telephone…
Tribes, with use of the drum would communicate with other tribes often miles away. Drums were often used to signal meetings, dangers, etc….
The talking drums of Africa imitate the pitch patterns of language and transmit messages over many miles. Drums acquired even divine status in places such as set normal , where the karyenda was a symbol of the power of the king.
The importance of drums to humanity cannot be overemphasised. Drumming tears down barriers, and bridges gaps between culture, language, gender, age and race, provides opportunity for people to congregate who otherwise may not helps build community, increases awareness of other people, among others.
Therefore, the Egun-sato is a giant drum around 1.75 meters high. It is one of the largest drums in the membranophone category and has two forms, male [1.6m] and female [1.63m]. It is also sometimes hermaphroditic and displays its sexual attributes in a striking way. These drums were to be played any time the Egun people are having festival or ceremony to perform.
Umukoro is Principal Museum Education Officer, Education Department, National Museum of Unity, Ibadan.
The tree is Atin-Iroko and the membrane covering the drum is the skin of an Antelope. Sato drummers are usually stimulated to play the drums when the smaller drums i.ethe gbehoun, ahlomidon, alangandan and the metal gong, are played together, jumping and hitting the sato drums using curved sticks. The orchestra is generally made up of 8 to 12 drummers (two per drum to allow for shifts)..
The Egun-sato is also played in the regions of Cove, Zagnannado, Abomey, Porto-Novo and the Valley of Ou.
The origin of Egun-Sato drum
The following is the full factual story of the Sato drums and this can be explained by two schools of thoughts. One school of thought have it that, the Badagry drums are an extra-ordinary set of drums with a story to tell, information has it that they were produced on the revelation of an oracle consulted by the Egun people of ‘’Ere-Tardome’’ village near Badagry town. The people of Ere-Tardome originated from Dahomey to their present location during the Dahomey war. They had wondered in the bush for some days until they saw a big tree with a very big hollow into which they entered and hide for days, presumably to be shielded from the invading army, which passed them by undetected. In their surprise and happiness at being saved an ordinary tree, they decided to cut it down intending to worship it as their saviour. They consulted an oracle which revealed that the branches [two] of the trunk of the tree should be cut down and made into drums (male and female).
The second school of thought had it that the history of the Sato drums in Nigeria would not be complete without delving into the history of Akarakunmo, as the following is a mixture of the history of Akarakunmo and the Sato drums.
The Name ‘Akarakunmo’
As a hunter, Avidagba was very powerful and could hunt any animal down. His friends commonly referred to him as ‘Aklaksu’ or ‘Aklak’ (meaning the powerful bird). This was a name given to him, because of the zeal he displayed in everything he did. One day, Avidagba went hunting but never came back. Days passed and still Avidagba had not returned. The villagers thought he had died and so carried out his burial. This was a sad period for the village. Then, one day, a figure was seen coming from the bush. It was Avidagba. People then started lamenting “AKLAKMAKUNMO” meaning, “AKLAK did not die”. Since then the town, in which Kodjo, Tosaviand Avidagba arrived, was named “AKLAKMAKUNMO”. However, because of pronunciation and poor translation of the Ogu language by colonial officers, the village’s name changed to ‘Akarakunmo’.
One day, Kodjo, Avidagba and Tosavi travelled to Weme for a gathering. They then saw a drum being played at the gathering. All three were entertained by the drum and liked it very much. On return to Akarakunmo, after the gathering, they decided to build a similar drum in the village. The three of them travelled to Gbagodo (forest) to look for the Atototin tree. They cut the tree down and transported the tree via boat to a large space of land. All three men were determined to build the drums.
The men dug a huge hole in the land they were using. Children were also used to dig the hole. Kodjo, Avidagba and Tosavi would place children inside the hole and use them as tools to dig out the soil. This lasted for months until the hole was big enough for the tree. They then planted the tree inside the hole and began to carve. The tree did not take long to finish. The drums were lifted from the hole and taken to Akarakunmo. On arrival at Akarakunmo, the drums made a loud booming sound, which resonated across the village. This was the first time Akarakunmoh and its inhabitants would hear the sound of the drum. The sound of the drum was so powerful that it scared some animals away from the town. The animals that scampered away from homes never returned.
The Sato drums are used and beaten in Akarakunmo during celebratory periods, particularly at burials of very old and renowned individuals. The drums are approximately three meters tall and beaten with seven long drumsticks.
The Sato drums were not widely known in Lagos State or Nigeria until 1972, when the drum was beaten in Kaduna during the reign of former President Yakubu Gowon. Furthermore, it was during this period that the drums were placed at the Badagry roundabout.
The main dancers and drummers of the Sato drums in Nigeria are the children of Kodjo, Avidagba and Tosavi. These are the people who originate from the areas ofAgbokomeh, Lokossa and Dadapame (now called Wheaga).
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