Kalangu: The talking drum

Here are some facts about the Kalangu.

 

The kalangu is a double-headed, hourglass-shaped, variable-pitch membranophone of the Hausa people of Nigeria. It is most strongly associated with a class of professional musicians (called masu kalangu) traditionally patronized by butchers (mahauta); more recently, patronage has been extended to boxers (who are often butchers), young people, and popular singer/entertainers.

 

 

 

The history of the Kalangu:

 

 

Double-headed, hourglass-shaped, variable-pitch membranophones such as the kalangu are a type of drum distributed broadly throughout western Africa, all the way from Senegal in the west to Nigeria in the east. Such a broad distribution suggests that such drums have been around for a long time, their basic design concept having traveled with migrations of people and the resulting cultural contacts over a period of centuries. However, like so many other African instruments, little is known in precise terms of the origin and history of the kalangu.