Last Night I Heard Africa Drumming

In an ordinary community hall

In the south-central section of the city

On one of the longest days of the year

They gathered.

Many of them from here:

Aboriginal, Métis, French and English Canadians,

And many of them from the Dark Continent:

Ghanaian, Angolan, Somali, Zimbabuen

We were raising money for a drought and poverty-stricken

Hospital in Western Ghana, and doing it in styleic

To say the hall was filled to overflowing

Would not be an exaggeration—but the real

Fulfillment came from the sound ...

As a little-travelled Canadian white woman

My understanding of African drumming

Was pretty much limited to what I saw on TV

And in movies from Hollywood; even specials

On National Geographic did not do justice

To the splendour of real drumming

The likes of which we heard last night

First, one drummer would start and he alone

Would be powerful and loud and rhythmic

In ways that are hard to define,

but

Then another would do a counter-beat

And another would join in and layer his

Distinctive drum either on top or in step

Until sometimes as many as ten drummers

Were making this remarkable sound

All of them different and all the same

Transporting many of us to Africa or to dance

Or both

It was not hard to imagine being in the jungle

In the dark around a fire, hearing the beat

Of these drums playing long into the night,

Or maybe for several days or nights

So mesmerizing is the intensity of music

That is just drumming—and I do not mean

To diminish it in the least by saying ‘just’

In fact, it's the opposite –that drums alone

Make such compelling music enthralls me

Thrills me, makes me want to move

As I noticed it did almost everyone

In attendance at this function

Yes, last night I heard Africa drumming

And began to understand her mystery

Just a little bit better and why

We need to keep trying with her;

Mama Africa, we hear you, we do

I found myself promising to try

Harder to help her and I will.

S.E.Ingraham©