The Talking Drum

There is an instrument played in West African villages called a "talking drum". Also known as dùndún, it can accurately replicate speech with a remarkable level of detail. It is an hourglass shaped double membrane instrument which is placed under the arm and squeezed to appropriately change the pitch from high to low, while also tapping the surface with a curved stick to make sound. It can be played in "talking" mode or music mode. In the former, it records high level of intensity and patterning to the human spoken word. Originally, the instrument was used to communicate between villages up to 5 miles apart. Many African languages are tonal, and so the drum is able to represent the tones of the syllables of conventional phrases. It is an extremely unique musical instrument showing the thin separation between speech and music, and that instruments are not just for making music, but a potent communication tool.

On the evening of Thursday November 11th, I heard the talking drum. I was at the cinema for the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and that talking drum pierced through the music, swelling the theatre with that familiar Wakandan sound. It’s like a tribal call that makes you want to sit up straight and lean in closer so you don’t miss anything they might whisper to you in secret.

The talking drum is the sound of Black Panther.

Despite not being into superhero movies, the film itself was great. The plot fantastic. The score exceptional – and worthy of all the awards to come. Ludwig Göransson, Swedish music composer, scored the film. Not his first, and certainly some of his best work, he created an entire sound for two fictional nations, built on hours of musical research and archeology in Mexico and Nigeria. Over 2500 hours of recording, more than 200 musicians, orchestras, many ancient instruments, an abundance of love and even more soul.

It was an explosion of subterranean rhythms, seamlessly blending cultures to the universal theme of grief and the healing power of love wrapped in a deep search for belonging and a resonant cry for leadership. The act of percussing is to strike something with your hand to set off a charge. Percussionists are imperative to keep the tempo from which the melody erupts and lays itself on top. The sound of the talking drum is both the tempo and the conversation on top. It is loud but not excessive, precise but not stingy. Drums may sit off to the side, or even at the back of the band, but their function is the true leadership of any music arrangement.

No percussion, no spark.

In the movie, Mexican actor Tenoch Heurta, plays Namor, also known as K’uk’ulkan – a feathered serpent God leading the empire of Talokan. Without giving away the plot, it is he who utters such potent words "only the most broken people can be great leaders." I found something peculiar about the intricacies of Ludwig’s use of the talking drum and the potency of Namor’s insight – the art of saying just enough.

Just enough to make the point is a quality shared by great leaders. Most leadership won’t waste your time on excessive dialogue. Nor will you find that they lack an ability to communicate their vision. Instead, they’re like their own talking drum. Steady, on beat, precise, knowing exactly when and how to bend the strings to reach the perfect pitch. It’s a self-knowing. A merging of deep inner wounds with outer demands. In the film, Shuri learns this firsthand. Grieving the loss of her brother the Black Panther, her character arc spans the depths of brokenness to finding her strength and power as the world needs her. So does Namor, rising to the surface world to fight and defend his people birthed from the sorrow and love for his mother.

I speak vaguely to avoid spoiling the film. Nonetheless, I wondered if you ever considered that your deepest wound, your sorrow, and your grief, is a story waiting to be told to unleash your leadership? And that the function of your voice is to find the rhythm that aligns with your pulse and boosts your melody…. to be your own talking drum.

Massamba Diop is the featured talking drum player in the Black Panther score. He comes from Senegal and is renowned for his masterful playing of the talking drum. Squeezing its leather strings attentively under his arm, he matched the percussion to the action pace of the Black Panther scenes.

Massamba leads the sound of Wakanda.

You get to lead the sound of your life.

'til next Sunday!Z.