ABSTRACT
On my first day in Rábíù Àyándókun𡀙s compound in Èrín-Óṣun, he interrupted our conversation by picking up a bàtá drum and playing something that – to my perception at the time – sounded like a free-time improvization. When a young man burst into the room about ten minutes later, out of breath and holding another bàtá drum, Àyándòkun giggled proudly, telling me that he had drummed a message to the young man, asking him to bring the drum from a neighbouring compound. Ayandokun was aware that I had come to Nigeria to research the bàtá drum language and he knew that he would impress me with this demonstration of distance communication, which I am told can stretch up to two kilometres on a quiet day in the town. Over the following years, I witnessed various kinds of drum communications (not always for my benefit) during my fieldwork in Èrìn-Óṣun. My desire to understand the bàtá𡀙s communication system has escalated over the past decade and has culminated in this volume.
