Motif: Talking Drum

Talking Drum – the surrogacy status of musical instruments as extensions of MuNtu’s body and voice/nommo evidenced by their communicative and co-creative role in the BaNtu universe of forces. The Talking Drum motif recalls that during the Middle Passage, the slave-master dynamic disrupted African communication networks through the destruction of drums and other instruments. It also validates cultural adaptations that have effectively communicated through the non-synthetic timelines and organic rhythms of Black Popular Music…