The Drums

The music and dance that Bush Mango Drum & Dance performs and teaches originates in West Africa.  Each rhythm carries with it a specific cultural context from a specific ethnic group.  Our intent at Bush Mango is to maintain the integrity of the work and pass on the oral language which is drum and dance!

Our drumming and dancing feature many instruments, including the jembe (djembe is the French spelling), which is moving toward world status as a percussion instrument.  It is rivaled in popularity perhaps only by the conga and steel pan.

“Jembe has a long, widespread and profound tradition in West Africa.  There is much more to that tradition than the physical act of moving hands to recreate rhythms, for those rhythms and their associated dances have vital meanings in Africa.  From the clearing of the fields, the celebrations of marriage, and the passing into adulthood to secret rituals, the jembe is there to guide.

African dancers and jembe players teaching abroad are charged by their legacy with faithfully communicating their traditions to foreign students.  It is up to us as students of drum and dance to seek them out, to learn about their culture, to study the sounds and movements of the masters, and to visit them in their towns and villages.  Otherwise, tradition may become so diluted that its very essence is lost.” Eric Charry, Mande Music