“Lack of interest from young people in learning the skill of drum making threatening the extinction of the traditional activity,” says a traditional drum maker

A traditional drum maker in Kitangirra village located in Kicwamba Sub County, Kabarole district Mr. Silvano Bwegendaho Araali has indicated that many young people are not embracing the practice because they think it is a rough job which threatens the extinction of the traditional activity.

Group photo of the training with facilitators

“I learnt the practice of drum making through non formal education from my father and I have tried to teach many of my children this traditional skill but many seem not interested because they see it as a rough job which threatens the extinction of the practice,” Said Bwegendaho

While speaking to participants of the training of trainers workshop organized by Engabu Za Tooro (Tooro Youth Platform for Action) who were conducting a field tour on Thursday 23^rd August, 2018 also indicated increasing de-forestration and overpopulation has also almost depleted the indigenous trees which are used for making the drums.

Bwegendaho who sees the practice of drum making as a noble profession because it has assisted him to improve his livelihood, “I sell traditional drums in markets like Mugusu Market and craft shops around Fort Portal town and get money to look after myself and my family,” says Bwegendaho.

Bwegendaho illustrating the traditional practice of making drums

According to Bwegendaho, drums are used during traditional ceremonies like marriage, religious services and community mobilization among others and there are many types of traditional drums with each type having a specialized person with the required skills and knowledge to use it acquired over a given period of time either through formal or non-formal education.

A complete traditional drum

Bwegendaho adds “There are special drums for different kinds of traditional activities for instance during Empango annual festival in Tooro and Bunyoro kingdoms there are special drums made specifically for the king from a tree in the middle of a forest where women have never reached.”  

To make a drum, a traditional drum maker needs tools like an axe, hammer, knife, panga, wood especially from indigenous trees like ‘omujuga ntara’, hides from cattle, python snakes and enswanswa (reptile animal almost similar to a crocodile).

“In the medieval era in the great Bunyoro Kitara kingdom, drum making was a preserved activity for men. However, today women are also involved in the activity of making traditional drums except women are not allowed to make traditional drums for the kings of Tooro and Bunyoro kingdoms,” Says Mr. Silvano Bwegendaho Araali

Currently, Engabu Za Tooro (Tooro Youth Platform for Action) is training book writers, creative writers, professional videographers, professional photographers, visual artists, sculptors, song writers, composers, poets, ritual leaders, herbalists, presenters of cultural programs on electronic media, vernacular teachers and translators among others from the Empaako communities to document their intangible cultural heritage.

The 10 days residential documentation capacity building workshop which started on 19^th August, 2018 at Fort Breeze Hotel, Fort Portal targets to benefit communities among the Batooro, Banyoro, Banyabindi, Basongora, Batuku and Batagwenda to enhance a UNESCO co-funded project aimed at community self-documentation and revitalization of ceremonies and practices associated with Empaako naming system in Uganda.