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November 2010

Vast tracts of ocean, whether Polynesia, Micronesia or Melanesia, contain island populations that remain outside the modern world. They know about it, they may have traveled to it, they appreciate artifacts and medical help from it, but they live their daily lives much as hundreds of generations of ancestors before them, without money, electricity, phones, TV or manufactured food.

Andrew Rayner – Reach for Paradise

Drums and storytelling

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Rwanda 4

The drum plays a very important role within African culture. Musicians known as “griots” who wander from village to village telling stories, preserving and reciting the great historical traditions, blessing the people and bringing current news from afar will often be accompanied by a drummer. Like a bee, collecting and pollinating. How would today’s “griot” evoke a message?

A chief will not go anywhere unless he is accompanied by a drummer to signify his status. In Africa, it is a drum and not a sceptre which is the symbol of the king

African Rhythm and African sensibility – John Miller Chernoff
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