The ‘Fontomfrom’ is a large, thunderous ceremonial drum used in large festivals and royal ceremonies in Ghana.

The ‘Fontomfrom’ is a large, thunderous ceremonial drum used in large festivals and royal ceremonies in Ghana. One drum is a female drum and the other is male. The two drums are tuned to each other. ‘Twi’ is a bi-tonal language spoken by the Akan people. The two drums with different but corresponding tones are able to communicate messages in Twi. The atumpan drum is played with two bent drum sticks usually by a master drummer. Along with the 27 known African alphabets, writing and glyph systems (Nsibidi, vai, Mende’, Bamum, Ajami, Sudani, Geez, MDR NTR, Meroitic etc.) Africa societies also developed several drum scripts which are ‘sonic alphabets’ once used for long distance communication, even in the diaspora until African drumming was outlawed, particularly in the United States in 1739 when it was discovered that enslaved communities were strategically communicating to get out of the hostile situation they found themselves in. These particular drums in the pics are high quality drums made from Tweneboa wood, a very musical and resonate wood that is very abundant. In the second pic is the Album cover of ‘Made in Ghana’ by music artist Okyeame Kwame.