Hello and greetings from everyone At Bakoteh Proper Lower Basic School. How are you all doing at St Joseph’s Catholic ?. We are nearly at the end of term and we wanted to wish you all a very happy Easter. We are having free time while our teachers mark our end of term test papers.

We have been playing skipping and clapping games and football. It is starting to get warm these days but is cold on the days the wind blows.

And we have been practicing for our inter- house athletics competition between yellow, blue, green and red kundas. I am in green kunda. And I am in yellow kunda. The competition is next term and we want to tell you all about it.

We have come to the drum museum to find out about drums. Drums have been used a long time in Africa. They were once used to send messages from one village to another. But they were also always used for music and are a very important part of African music Drums were traditionally made by hollowing out a tree trunk and stretching a piece of cowhide over it. This is how the most popular drum in The Gambia was made. Its called a Djembe. Djembe Drum

There are many different types of drums. Each tribe has its own drum, And Mandinkas use three drums whereas the Wolofs and Jola tribes use four. They are played at important ceremonies and are accompanied by clapping and dancing. The Bombolon drum is associated with the Jola tribe. It is a carved out of wood and used to at wrestling competitions. It is beaten with two sticks made from bamboo. It has a deep, guttural pitch

But many things have been used as drums. In the past the dried out shell of a calabash was used. To make a great sound it was place upside down in some shallow water. At home I use the plastic container my mum buys cooking oil in and a wooden stick off a tree. It makes a good sound. A decorated calabash drum turned upside down and sitting in water inside a larger calabash shell.

And here we all are at school playing the drums. Its such fun and we love the sound.

Well we hope you enjoyed our end of term presentation and learning about African drums. So we say bye for now and wish you a happy Easter. We look forward to hearing from you soon.