Djembe Production

The traditional djembe

From a Forest to a Djembe Drum

Drum production in Ghana

The djembes used in the Drum Circle Workshops with Renzo Spiteri at St. James Cavalier were imported directly form Ghana by L-Arka, Malta's sole fair-trade shop. The following piece describes certain phases of the production of these djembes.

It is Sunday afternoon in Okoroase (Eastern Region of Ghana) and from far you can hear the monotonous sound of the asinkuma and soso hitting a woodlog.

Okoroase is the center of drumbody production in Ghana nowadays. 10 years ago, this location - in the middle of the vast forest area around Asamankese, Akim-Oda and Kade (all Eastern Region) - had a rather small population of carvers, who were just producing morters and sticks, which are wooden cooking utensils in Ghanaian households.

Some 1000 carvers in the area are now gainfully employed in the drum-making business for export. This prevented the youth to escape to the nearby city of Accra, where they can only look for the job opportunities. Drum-making brought the work to their rural doorstep, and with it came development, such as transport and electricity, as well as improved living conditions.

An estimated export volume of 100,000 drums a year or more contribute to a fast depletion of virgin forests in the area.

There are special logger and chainsaw operators, who go to the bush to fell the trees, cut the round log pieces with chainsaws and transport them to the production villages. These operations of late are controlled by the Ghana Forestry department as chainsaw operators need licenses and their output is registered.

For the Djembe drum body, a piece of Tweneboa is used by the body - carver. This round log is first debarked by a tool called ASINKUMA (cutlass) and the ASINO (big axe). With the SOSO (a long stick where a round gorge is attached) the holes are chopped out from down and up, leaving the inside rather rough. To make the small hole inside the soso is eating up and down.

To obtain the form outside on the body the cutlass is used again to form the middle of the body. For the demarkation of the round top body the ASINO or big axe is used to make the round parts.

After the inside is chopped out, the form is sized and the height is fixed, the smoothening starts: Inside a small gourge is taking away sharp ends, and on the surface the sproke-shape is chopping fine spans away. The under and the top are again straightened with the mechanical or motor chainsaw.

The wood which is cut from the drum will not be a waste, but will be used in cooking, or even is sold as firewood.

Now the raw body can leave Okoroase to further production centres. These are mainly Aburi in the Akwapim ranges of the Eastern Region in Ghana or individual workshops located in Ghana’s capital Accra.

Here the drum builder is doing his work, and his is the most work, and he is the actual drum producer, whose product the drum is.

He first has to see the body for its quality:

small cracks are repaired (patched);
woodholes are filled with woodglue and
pores are sealed, if necessary.
Big cracks from down the drum should however not been further worked on, as they can open more.
Cracks from the top of the drum however do not necessarily make the drum a waste. With a good sealing and sandpaperings, these will not open more and are also not visible on the drum
Straightening of the down and
Rounding of the top edges are the next quality related steps.
A final sandpapering completes the raw body for drum making.

Now the decoration of the drum becomes the major part of the work:

Cared Designs, done with a V-gourge and a chisel have to beautify the raw body. This can be geometrical forms or the so called Adinkra signs, symbols of Ghanian tradition.
Some bodies are decorated with material on their round part, which is cut to size and carefully nailed on the drum.
Some designs are blackened after they have been carved. This is done by applying potassium liquid with a toothbrush on the deep carved parts, let it dry, and then remove the overstanding black with the sproke-shave tool, and then sandpaper again.
Even the whole body can be blackened with Potassium, sandpaper properly and shined a lot, so that a glossy, shiny black surface is decorated with a few strokes of v-gorge carving, which then come out white or cream, the color of the wood.
Other intricate designs can be applied to a drum body: Pieces of Brass, tin aluminium or metal sheets, which themselves are incised can be put on the drums. These again can be polished, made antique or is blackened. The variety is endless.

From here other technicians start their work:

The welder cuts Iron Rod of ¼’ to size the three rings of the Djembe, he bends it and welds it to a ring onto the drum. But before the rusty iron rod is covered with small pieces of cloth.

On the rings the drumtuner fixes his strings. Drumtuning and the arranging of the knots and the strings is the most sensitive part for the good finish of the drum. Here plenty techniques, secrets and expertise are existing and it seems only Musicians and Profis can describe the complicated process of it all.
The drumtuner then also has to fix the leather - a goat skin normally, not chemically treated and not bleeched off their hairs. It is soaked in water for smoothening before fixed around the two top rings and cut and then the hair removed with a blade.
When it is dry fastening and tightening with the strings can be done.

Now the drum is ready for final touches:

Applying of polish (red or neutral).
Two rounds of shining-polishing and shining again make the smooth surface if wanted.
Cutting of hair and sandpapering the skin.
And a final control before the drum is exported.

In this long process a drum can be estimated a total man/hour production time of about 6 to 10 hours, depending on the Design. Left alone with costs of material of about 30% to 45% of the whole drumprice (that also depends on the various material, which can be better, and so more expensive), labour and overhead cost for a drum in the range of about 6000-8000

Cedis per man/hour can be achieve. This forms a relatively good income compared to the government minimum wage of 5000 Cedis a day.

However the total process of drum making should be properly evaluated, as it deals with scarce resources, employs a large labour force and has been growing into a huge industry over the past then years.