sangba, double-headed cylindrical drum

Double-headed cylindrical drum (sangba) sytem sdescribed by F. W. H. Migeod in 1920, attributed to a “Mendi resident in the Gold Coast Colony” (335). Content includes long-distance messages about food and hunting, death announcements, names, sums of money, and “[c]alls to dances and Poro meetings” as well as to gambling games. The system appears to have been limited to some stock phrases, as “that food is ready, but not the nature of it” could be signaled, probably indicating a lack of productivity (335). Some subject matter is restricted to certain contexts: “the fact that a woman had eloped could be signaled on a horn but not on a drum” (335).

Migeod, F. W. Η. (1920). MENDI DRUM SIGNALS. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok (Eds.), Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976. DE GRUYTER. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804416.334