African skins... diference from other goats

[Kallaumari]

Hi everyone,

All this year I've been mounting skins like crazy and i have no problem with the mounting itself but whenever it comes to tunning.... thats where my headaches begin.

a couple weeks ago I bumped into a djembe from guinea here in mexico (maybe lenke or djalla or some other african hardwood) with skin also from guinea. Obviously it sounded professional.

I have only mounted goat skins from here, even used thick ones .... but have poped a few even before reaching a good pitch.

Could you please advise if there is something special about african goat skins that makes them diferent from other countries? could it be that the sking thickness is related to african hot ecuatorial weather?


Thanks and kind regards,

Le Kallaumarie

[fa_ramiro]

YEs man! the african goats, sound better, and can hold even high tuning, because of the wheater of the place they grow (africa). And other important tip, is the feeding, of the animal. In general goats in africa suffer from starvation. That is sad, but to us, djembefolas, that is great, because the animal doesnt develop any fat, in its body and skin. So there is an equation, animal with fat, bad sound; animal with 0% fat, better sound and higher tuning.

I´ve heard from a friend of mine, that in senegal, they feed the goat with "cardboar" (en español carton) soaked in water! O men that have to sound Crakly!

Ramiro.

[the kid]

In the rain season there is loads of food for goats. they probably survive on very little at times in the dry season but still all the goats i've seen in gambia looked healthy enough. I don't know are there farms specifically for goat skin. I don't think so. The meat is far more valuable in Africa so to get meat the goats won't be purposely 'starved'.

I think the sound and strenght of west african goat skin is due to the climate and location.

[michi]

Fat content of the skin is the main factor influencing sound. Lower fat content gives better sound. The goats in Africa often don't get fed. Instead, they scrounge around rubbish dumps and eat whatever they can find along the road side. All the goats I saw in Africa looked skinny to me. Not necessarily unhealthy, but skinny.

I'm told that skins from German goats are completely unusable on djembes because they sound dreadful. Apparently, the cold climate causes them to accumulate a lot more fat, quite a bit of which ends up in the skin. And, of course, German goats are usually well fed, which also increases the fat content.

The ideal goat is probably one that comes from a hot and dry climate, and has been scrounging for a living most of its life, so it's nice and skinny. (Australian feral goats might turn out to be as good as African ones. But that's speculation--I have no idea how I would get my hands a skin from a feral goat...)

Cheers,

Michi.