slit-log drum

System employing slit-log drums used by the Mbɔle people of the Tshopo (formerly Stanleyville) province of the D.R. Congo, described by Carrington (1957). The instrument itself can consist of one or two drums (termed “gongs” by Carrington). When two, they are arranged within a “talking-shed”, with a larger drum occupying the length of the shed (752) and a smaller drum arranged at the perpendicular. Carrington reports the language as having H and L tones (751). Each drum is capable of high and low pitches. In the surrogate system, a single drum’s two pitches are congruently mapped to the linguistic tones. Use of one or two drums is determined by context. For most messages, only one drum is used. But for the specific case of announcements relating to the initiation ritual ekanga, “the gong-beater makes main announcements on the smaller gong… with short, characteristic refrains on the larger gong” (752). Repertoire seems to be primarily limited to traditional enphrasings, but Carrington reports a more spontaneous context: “Sometimes the gong-beater addresses people passing by on the road and asks them for a gift (small coins, cigarettes)” (754). Content includes long-distance communication and traditional religious announcements (e.g. ekanga messages) (752).

Carrington, J. F. (1976). Four-toned announcements on Mbɔle talking gongs. In Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976. (pp. 751–756). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804423-010