- Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:40 am
#26075
The discussion of tuning systems prompted me to have a look at what I could find about the so-called "Djem tree" by doing a few searches.
Wow! Now that's an experience. Google returned 608 hits on the term (a very low number, incidentally). Looking at the results, it appears that almost everyone has copied from one incorrect original source. Some guy invented the story of how djembes are made from the "Djem tree", and everyone blithely copied that.
As far as I can tell, none of these pages cite a source. The "knowledge" that the "Djem tree" is what djembes are made out of seems to have sprung from nowhere.
A few hits say that the "Djem tree" is the same as the Sicamore fig (Ficus sycomorus). That tree grows in West Africa (as well as elsewhere). However, I have never heard of this tree as being used for djembes. No shell supplier I know of, no literature I have read, no master I have spoken to has ever mentioned this.
Some choice quotes from the pages I looked at:
The "quote" from Eric Charry is particularly worrying because the quotation marks indicate a literal quote from his article. However, if you go and read Charry's article, you find that he never said any such thing. "Citations" such as this are the bane of academics and researchers; the falsification can be so gross as to make a reputable researcher appear to be completely incompetent.
The claim that djembe musicians are djelis is patently false; the djembe never was a griot instrument.
While looking through some of these pages, I also found that virtually all of them freely copied text from an older version of the Wikipedia page on the djembe. Some of what used to be on that page was also complete fantasy material with no connection to reality or citation of sources.
Another example is the use of the term "djun djun" for dunduns (or "dunun", if you prefer that spelling). Currently, I get about 71,000 hits on the word, even though it is a made-up term that has never been correct. Again, looking through the search results, it becomes clear that the vast majority of appearances of "djun djun" are verbatim (or near verbatim) copies of an old Wikipedia page. In fact, you can trace this back directly to the very first day that article was created, on 31 December 2004. One moron who thought "djun djun" sounded cool (or otherwise didn't know better) created that page; ever since, everyone else blithely copied it.
The Internet is a curse as much as a blessing…
Michi.
Wow! Now that's an experience. Google returned 608 hits on the term (a very low number, incidentally). Looking at the results, it appears that almost everyone has copied from one incorrect original source. Some guy invented the story of how djembes are made from the "Djem tree", and everyone blithely copied that.
As far as I can tell, none of these pages cite a source. The "knowledge" that the "Djem tree" is what djembes are made out of seems to have sprung from nowhere.
A few hits say that the "Djem tree" is the same as the Sicamore fig (Ficus sycomorus). That tree grows in West Africa (as well as elsewhere). However, I have never heard of this tree as being used for djembes. No shell supplier I know of, no literature I have read, no master I have spoken to has ever mentioned this.
Some choice quotes from the pages I looked at:
That is of course complete nonsense. The djembe doesn't come from Ghana, it's not made from the "Djem tree", and even though the Ewe word for goat is "be", that's irrelevant, because "djembe" is a Malinke word.We learnt that the “Djembe” come from Ghana. The drums are made from wood from the “Djem” tree and goat skin (goats are called “Be” in Ghana) hence the name “Djembe”.
http://www.ghschool.net/Music_Art_Drama ... rkshop.php
That is of course complete fantasy material. The djembe was never used a signalling drum by the Malinke and has nothing to do with the bush telegraph of central Africa.In West African communities drumming was originally used to communicate across far distances. The djembe drum was the mouthpiece used by tribes to connect and converse with each other regular interactions.
http://www.druminspire.com/index.htm?page=drumming.htm
The entire thing is a complete fabrication. (Sadly, this is from a college syllabus!)The djembe is used to communicate traditional messages.
Traditionally, each djembe drum begins with a message from the djem tree.
Eric Charry shares in his article, “A Guide to the Jembe” written in April, 1996, "The djembe is used for communication in and among West African villages."
Ali Mazrui's newspaper article entitled, "The Africans, A Triple Heritage" from the Boston Globe, 1986, indicates traditional djembe musicians are of the djeli class, and pass on history and stories through their drumming.
http://www.virtual.yosemite.edu/kgyuran/102inform2.htm
The "quote" from Eric Charry is particularly worrying because the quotation marks indicate a literal quote from his article. However, if you go and read Charry's article, you find that he never said any such thing. "Citations" such as this are the bane of academics and researchers; the falsification can be so gross as to make a reputable researcher appear to be completely incompetent.
The claim that djembe musicians are djelis is patently false; the djembe never was a griot instrument.
While looking through some of these pages, I also found that virtually all of them freely copied text from an older version of the Wikipedia page on the djembe. Some of what used to be on that page was also complete fantasy material with no connection to reality or citation of sources.
Another example is the use of the term "djun djun" for dunduns (or "dunun", if you prefer that spelling). Currently, I get about 71,000 hits on the word, even though it is a made-up term that has never been correct. Again, looking through the search results, it becomes clear that the vast majority of appearances of "djun djun" are verbatim (or near verbatim) copies of an old Wikipedia page. In fact, you can trace this back directly to the very first day that article was created, on 31 December 2004. One moron who thought "djun djun" sounded cool (or otherwise didn't know better) created that page; ever since, everyone else blithely copied it.
The Internet is a curse as much as a blessing…
Michi.