A Day in Cape Coast (A Week of Drum Lessons)
Trip Start
Jul 01, 2009
1
5
6
Trip End
Aug 21, 2009
Cape Coast, Ghana
Thursday, August 13, 2009
This last week has been the most drumming intense yet. Everyday that I am in the village, I have a morning and afternoon lesson. I am not studying primarily with Ledzi (dz is pronounced j), a drummer from a nearby village. Every morning, he wakes me up a little bit earlier so we can squeeze in as much as possible in the short time that remains . I have learned a lot so far (including the lead drum parts and dances to a new few song s this week), but there is a lot still to be learned before I go, and even more to learn when I return to Ghana ...
After the rest of the group left last week, I started to explore some of the local music traditions in Dagbamete and the surrounding villages. A few of my friends in the village took me to community drumming rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday. These are big groups of people that gather from local villages to play music every couple of weeks. There are specific people who drum, and the rest of the people dance and sing. Because I was new to the group, I played axatse (shaker) and danced. While it is always fun to get together and play music, these groups also act as life insurance for the villagers. Instead of paying money to a company, the villagers pay dues at every rehearsal. When a villager passes away, the group performs at their funeral, and helps provide for the deceased's family.
On Saturday, I was able to go to a funeral and see the community drumming group in action. While I could only attend the funeral for a few hours on, the ceremonies/music continued from Friday night until Sunday. At the funeral, two comunity drumming groups were performing (villagers are usually a member of multiple groups). These two groups performed side by side, at the same time (picture two bands playing on the same stage at the same time). While it was a little chaotic, I was lucky enough to play axatse and dance as part of one of the groups.
On Sunday, after my morning lesson, I went to the shrine. As I learn more about the traditions, I am less bothered by the sacrificing. However, I still found that I needed to distract myself by playing axatse with the shrine drumming group. After visiting the shrine, I learned to cook jollof rice. This is one of my favourite local dishes, so I wanted to be able to share it with people when I get home (there are a few more recipes that I am going to learn this week).
On Monday, we travelled to Cape Coast. After not being able to go on my first weekend in Ghana (due to Obama-related traffic and bad weather), I was worried I would not get another chance to go, but Kwasi, my teacher, insisted that we take time off from lessons to visit this historic place. While it was a lot of driving for two days (especially for Ledzi, who was travelling in the trunk), it was well worth the trip. Our trip to Cape Coast was highlighted by the roadside food shopping. Anywhere you stop in Ghana, there is someone selling food at the side of the road. You don't even have to leave your car, they deliver to your window. We bought octopus for dinner.
On Tuesday, I woke up to find out that the hotel we stayed at is also home to a number of crocodiles. When we arrived the previous night, I did not expect to find crocodiles in the pond at the hotel. After breakfast, I touch a crocodile (they are used to people), and paddled around the pond.
After leaving the hotel, we went to Kakum Rainforest where we did the Canopy Walk. This is a rope bridge connected at the top of some of the tallest trees in the forest. The canopy walk was engineered by Canadians, who employed local bird hunters to climb the ginormous trees. Looking out, over the top of the rainforest, makes it hard to believe how anyone could destroy something so beautiful (we saw a small area of clear cut forest). Also, looking down (through the mesh barriers), makes you hope that the supporting cables don't give way.
After enjoying some octopus left-overs, an African picnic, we went to Elmina Slave Castle. This was a very disturbing place, that raises a lot of questions about how people treat each other. We had an amazing tour guide who took us through the castle and shared some very emotional stories. After seeing the fort at Keta, I thought I had an idea of the size of slave trade, but seeing the castle made me realise how huge an effect it had. This castle was built to hold a minimum of 1000 slaves at a time (Cape Coast Castle, of similar size, is located within eyesight of Elmina). For hundreds of years, these machines held slaves for the two months before they were shipped overseas.
We walked through dungeons, where people were chained together, rarely fed, and never let outside. The slave trader's philosophy of treating slaves poorly was influenced by two things: healthy slaves were too strong to control, and if a slave couldn't survive the poor conditions of the castle, they weren't good enough to be slaves. Many people were left in the dungeons to die (the traders only needed to sell 35% of the slaves to make a profit. After the died, they remained chained to the living until they were sent onto the ship. Looking through the door of no return, the door where slaves passed on their way from the castle to the ship, it's impossible to imagine what went through a slaves mind when they left the castle, and their homeland, forever.
At a ceremony a few years ago, tribal chiefs from around Ghana posted a message to visitors of Elmina:
In everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors, may those who died rest in peace, may those who return find their roots, may humanity never again perpetuate such injustice against humanity, we the living vow to uphold this
(Might I remind you that after the slave trade ended in the 1800's, similar crimes were committed against humanity during the Holocaust, only 60 years ago ... we still have a long way to)
After a late night arrival in Dabamete, we continued drumming for the past two days. Morning and afternoon, Ledzi is trying to fit as much into my brain as possible. We have a lot more songs to learn, and only 7 days to learn them, but Ledzi and I are both working as hard as we can. Now, it is time to practice what we learned today, and hopefully get a little sleep. While I am very excited to see you all very soon, I might just have to conveniently miss my flight (just for a couple years ... )
Thanks again for reading about my trip,
Derek (Kwabla) Gray
