Day 7 - Burundian Drummers! Once our friend, Melanie, arrived in Burundi and started sending us videos of the Burundian drummers, I knew I wanted to experience this awesomeness in person. Obviously, if you have seen my previous posts, the whole trip was amazing up to this point, but the anticipation of seeing the drummers in Burundi was so thrilling to me! The experience did not disappoint!After the Rusuzi River cruise, we could add on a show by a group of Burundian drummers (of course, we did!)...so as we disembarked from the boat and balanced on the path of bricks back to the parking lot, we heard the beat of the drum pulling us in! Our friend, Melanie, shared this about the Burundian tradition...
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So one of Burundi’s claims to fame is its drummers. Don’t think rock band. Think traditional, handcrafted wood tree trunk that is hollowed out with an animal hide as the drum top. Then combine that with acrobats and a male dance troop. Now you have Burundian drummers.
The drummers of Burundi traditionally have been the entertainers of the Burundian kings, the African equivalent of the jester/court musician. In the country’s Kirundi language, the word for drum — “ingoma” — is the same as that for kingdom.
These days, Burundi’s monarchy is long gone; it’s a democracy. Thus the drummers play for the government or, well, anyone who will pay them. And they are famous. In 2014, Burundi’s ritual dance of the royal drums was placed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which described it as “a spectacle combining powerful, synchronized drumming with dancing, heroic poetry and traditional songs.”
And there are several interesting traditions related to the drumming. There is generally one drum in the middle that keeps the primary beat. Drummers are men. (It’s supposed to be bad luck for a woman to drum.) And they must have an odd number of drummers. The drummers come in carrying the drums on their head and exit the same way. And to be clear, these are not small or light drums. We’re talking waist-high tree trunks that weigh in the range of 50-75 pounds. That will strengthen your neck muscles up pretty quickly!
They use the top and sides of the drum to make their music. They dance around. They do high leaps like cheerleaders. They do full-on gymnastics runs in front of the drums (double-handspring to double ariels). They shout. In short, they are excellent entertainers.
How entertaining? Very.
They also perform barefooted! Which may not be too hard for jumping and basic drumming but has to be hard for the acrobatics runs.
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I don't have much to add to this....Jason was invited eventually to dance and drum. Later, I was invited by our cruise guide to do some dancing, but after she got me started she stepped away. Melanie was the photographer/videographer while we were enveloped in the drumbeats. They pulled us all in for a group photo at the end - it was exhilarating! I still feel the beat in my bones - I loved it!
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As you scroll through our photos and videos (recommended! - coming soon), I am sure you will be as delighted as we were to watch the boy doing his thing - he is 7 years old (and I imagined my kiddo his age out there drumming and dancing and jumping!). There is a part of the show when individuals come out to the center and showcase their jumps, flips, or whatever - some of them really hammed it up! One of my collages is all of one guy - he kept the drum on his head and went all the way down to laying on the ground and back up - he loved all our cheers!
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I cannot give enough stars to the Burundian drummers and our experience with them - it's my favorite part of the trip (if I have to pick from all the extraordinary things we did on this adventure)!
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