Talking drum: West African born, it is becoming a world beat instrument

Assane Thiam
Originally uploaded by abudoma

The talking drum is a West African drum whose pitch can be regulated to the extent that it is said the drum "talks".

Talking drums are some of the oldest instruments used by west African griots and their history can be traced back to ancient Ghana Empiretimes. The Hausa people (and by influence, the Yoruba people of south western Nigeria and Benin and the Dagomba of northern Ghana) have developed a highly sophisticated genre of griot music centering on the talking drum.