In the Beginning Was Drumming: Òrìs̩à in Yorùbá Music

It is generally believed that the first Yorùbá drummer was a man named Àyànàgalú. His status as the progenitor of all Yorùbá drummers—indeed, the Yorùbá deity of drumming—is acknowledged and commemorated in the adoption of his name by traditional Yorùbá drummers whose names begin with the prefix “àyàn.” Yorùbá drummers routinely perform appeasement rituals in his honor, seeking to invoke his authority to secure good luck and fortune (orí ire) in their daily work as drummers and custodians of his musical legacy. As Akin Euba has observed, Àyànàgalú's status symbolizes a tripartite identity: deity, spirit of the drum, and ancestral father of all Yorùbá drummers. The strong attachment of music to Yorùbá deities (Òrìs̩à), as depicted in the spiritual and ancestral legacy of Àyànàgalú, represents a natural starting point for my discussion of Yorùbá music, because it provides the background for understanding the religious significance of indigenous Yorùbá music, and for my exploration of the ways in which Yorùbá drummers have sought to negotiate for themselves new and competing identities in recent times.

The diverse character of Yorùbá deities speaks to the dynamic nature of Yorùbá religion itself and how it has evolved over many hundreds of years. Many Òrìs̩à have emerged over a long period of time often as a result of pragmatic human responses to important events. Powerful kings, great warriors and famous women have transmuted into Òrìs̩à, joining an array of over one thousand hierarchically structured pantheons, some of whom have existed, it is believed, from the very time of creation.

The unbroken chain between Òrìs̩à and humans is symbolized in the institution of egúngún (ancestor-venerating masquerades) whose significance is rooted in the belief that departed beings, though physically dead, continue to intervene in the affairs of humans; protecting, rebuking and reforming as occasion demands. Ancestral spirits work in concert with Òrìs͎à, functioning as intermediaries between the domain of social experience and the supernatural world of spirit beings, both domains of which are under the sole authority of O̩ ló͎run or Olódùmarè, the owner of heaven and the master of the universe.