slit-log drum, bouŋgu

Drumming system used by the Lokele people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, described by Carrington (1944, 1949). The drum itself (bouŋgu in Kele) is a hollowed log measuring about 1 to 2 meters in length according to Carrington’s measurements (533). It has one primary longitudinal slit, with one side producing the high-pitched‘limiki lia otolome’ (‘voice of the male’) and the other the low-pitched ‘limiki lia otomali’ (‘voice of the female’) (533).  Carrington says spoken Kele has two tones, H and L, corresponding to high and low pitches on the drum. To distinguish ambiguous patterns, enphrasing is heavily employed: “learning the drum language… consists in committing to memory the words of a large number of stereotyped phrases” (540). Still, many of the Carrington's examples encode combinable lexical items, not stock phrases in their entirety. A number of the phrases include lexical archaisms (541), as well as at least one preserved archaic tonal pattern (1949:628). “Every male Lokele is entitled to a drum name” that includes an inherited proverbial phrase and references to the drum names of his father and of his mother’s home village.” (1944:542). “Any Lokele man proficient in drumming is allowed to beat out messages. Women understand the drum language but do not usually beat the drum… if a woman were allowed to beat the drum she would have to use one stick only” (535-6). Content includes long-distance communication, announcements of births, deaths, ceremonies, official matters (including the opening times for the market and bank), and names. A symbolic call-signal precedes drummed messages, with an alternating HLHL pattern represented by the vocables ki kɛ ki kɛ; in some villages the message also concludes with simultaneous H and L strikes (“kbɛi”) (1949 631-2). A 1943 survey conducted by Carrington indicated only 36% of schoolboys could reproduce their own drum names, suggesting a “marked decrease in drum-signaling… among the Lokele people” (552) in that period. The system is now reportedly extinct (

Dyson, F. (2011). How We Know. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved October 13, 2020, from https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/03/10/how-we-know/?pagination=false,Carrington, J. F., Sebeok, T. A., & Umiker-Sebeok, J. (1976). The Drum Language of the Lokele Tribe. In Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976. (pp. 591–668). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804423-001,Carrington, J. F. (1949). Talking Drums of Africa. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok, Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976.