ABSTRACT
During the 18th century, enslaved Africans in Jamaica developed a unique instrument called the gumbe drum. It is a small square- or rectangle-shaped frame with a smaller frame inside. Musicians tune the drum by adjusting wooden wedges that hold the two frames together. Gumbe is a genre of music in which players sing along with the gumbe drum as well as the maracash (usually a bottle and tin played together) and the saw (two saws or knives played together to create a grating sound). Today, Sierra Leonean gumbe musicians such as Drizilik, Mijay, Block Jones and Yung Sal mix traditional gumbe beats with Afropop, Afrobeat, hip-hop and reggae. Others, such as Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, still play traditional gumbe. Caribbean musicians such as soca and dancehall musician Tigaman also employ gumbe beats.
