Description

It’s All Good

This was Sunday in 2000 at Orchard Beach in the Boogie Down Bronx, NY, where drumming in the vein of African culture, lit up the grove with lively dancing and chanting in the Yoruba tradition. In The Bronx, they gather to party with a purpose, letting the rhythms seep into their souls to celebrate the wonderful power of their African ancestry.

This adherence to the African drum didn’t surface out of thin air. Whether from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, South America, Haiti, Jamaica or Cuba, they share a common heritage in preserving the beauty of West African culture.

The drum, besides being a musical instrument of entertainment, is a sacred element of communication to the orishas, deities, gods and goddesses of the Yoruba religion (Ifa). We know enslaved Africans worked six days a week, from sunup to sundown but reasoning says, that the seventh day of celebration is when transfers of rhythms, religion and routes for escaping the plantation took place among the enslaved.

As the drums blasted loudly in southern plantations and metal objects sounded out among the revelers, explanations took place―conversations began and their meanings still capture our attention inside today’s cultural celebrations.