Drum
Athieno Gertrude
Salim Kasamba

The drum has always been an important musical instrument in our community. We love drums!

We have drums of different sizes: big, medium-sized and small.

1

We play drums using beaters, or with our fingers.

We play drums for various reasons. We play drums with songs and dances, for feasts and in bad times.

2

Drums enrich songs and make people want to dance. Drums make ceremonies colourful.

We play drums during ceremonies for marriage and child naming. We play drums when celebrating a new harvest or a twin birth.

3

We sound drums to announce grief and call people when death occurs.

4

We sound drums to call people to clean wells, clear roads, or to build a hut for a needy old person.

We sound drums to call people when cattle are stolen in our village.

5

We sound drums to gather people for meetings at our chief's palace.

6

Drums call people to go to church for prayers on Sundays, and other prayer days.

We also play drums to enrich songs when singing in churches.

7

The big drum sounds, "An a bul mba, an a bul mba-mba-mba-mba bul." The small drums sing in their high pitches, "Tindiri, tindiri tindiri ti."

Together they chorus, "Tindiri mba, tindiri mba-mba-mba-mba, tindiri ti!"

8
You are free to download, copy, translate or adapt this story and use the illustrations as long as you attribute in the following way:
Drum
Author - Athieno Gertrude
Translation - Owino Ogot
Illustration - Salim Kasamba
Language - English
Level - Longer paragraphs