THE VALUE OF AFRICAN CULTURE IN WORSHIP: THE CASE OF

DRUMS IN SDA AMONG THE BETIS IN CAMEROON

Patrick Anani Etough
Universit Adventiste Cosendai, Cameroon
.
Abstract
This article aims to reconcile the use of drums (nkoul) in worship by enhancing and correcting how it
is played today in Eastern Cameroon. By examining how the Bible distinguished ritual and non-ritual
music performances, the article offers a constructive approach to incorporate also another model,
while keeping with the Word of God. The conclusion is that African traditions, most part of time,
parallel the music of the Bible. The main questions are how and when drums and tambourines could
be used in Church liturgy amid the betis? One of the effects of the Colonization has been negative to
worship styles in general. It has caused the breakdown of traditional forms of worship. With the
missionary impact, Christians mostly use Western approaches to music rather than traditional. For the
main part, Christian music was imposed via spiritual superiority. Through repeated performances, as
other traditional churches, Adventists, have internalized Western music as biblical norms;
consequently, worship in most part of Africa is more Europeanized. The Western way has also
colonized worship styles in Cameroon, more specifically, among the Betis.
Keywords
Worship, drums tambourines, music, temple, Western music, African music

Do not sing like someone else; do not dance like someone else.
Cameroonian Proverb, Mafa1
Introduction
The Professor James Park, then lecturer at Adventist International Institute of
Advanced Studies in 2013, after a missionary Journey in Lukanga, Congo Kinshassa once
told that he was so surprised to find that African SDA Churches were restricted to Western
hymns during the Sabbath worship. This is not so an isolated case, because of its missionary
roots, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cameroon, as most part of Africa, sings
passionately more western hymns than African songs. Church members sing rarely from their
vernacular tongues and traditions, and this is even true in villages contexts and culture.
Music style amid SDA has always been dominated by Western standards since the
first missionary came. Also, Cameroonian music, for most of westerners, lacks of any given
organization that rest on specialized guild, which is characterized by noise, dance, and
spontaneousity. Moreover, in the writing of the Spirit of Prophecy, drums are not well
represented. For example, Ellen G. White also states that in the future,

Ka slu dimesh ndo bai; ka gotso ngece ndo bai, source and translationby Rev. Dr. Moussa
Bongoyok

Just before the close of probation, there will be shouting, with drums, music, and
dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be
trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an
invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none affect the
pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, and sanctifying truth for this time.2
An example of depiction of Western SDA of African music is when African Caribbean
steel drums sounded at the 2000 General Conference Session in Toronto, it caused
considerable consternation and controversy within the denomination. Probably, this is
because of the direct connection with idols worship.
Statement of the Problem
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cameroon is still in the stage of imitation of
Western worship.3 Although missional context should also be taken into account the cultural
life where ministry takes place, music has not always been taught cross culturally by
missionaries amid the SDA Churches in Africa in general and in particular in Cameroon. This
is much emphasized by ethnomusicologist for other traditional churches.4 The image is
ranging through a variety of independent churches to missionary led churches. WilsonDickson suggests one of the main reasons why such a debilitating attitude passed to African
Christians:
There was fear that music might become a real force in the lives of those involved in
it. It was, for instance, wholly reprehensible to allow music to become rhythmic and
exciting enough to invite a bodily response, so its physical dimension was banned
from worship. . . . The permissible Christian music that remained was (and happily
still is) a narrow and poverty-stricken offshoot from the main cultural stem of western
culture, reflecting and tainting the western style of Christian worship.5
French missionaries would introduce their types of music, which was familiar to their culture.
However, the goal of effective mission is to make the message of Jesus understood among the
heathen (Matt 28) and to use responsibly their culture and contexts in a way that is shaped by
biblical imperatives. The challenge of twenty first century should be to understand how
differing music might be shaped through the Bible. After more than 100 years since the first
encounter between western Adventism and Cameroonian traditional religion, it seems that
music has always had a key function in worshipping God. Although in the rural mission,
churches have incorporated somehow hand drums into Church worship. But this has not been
done without difficulties.
The sense of the music found in particular people in terms of both sound and
behavior (King 2004, 296) is quite difficult to understand. Each mission has to investigate
music and culture, since African music affects human life. Such analysis would help to
2

Ellen G. White, Selected Messages (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1958), 1:37.

There are six stages: importation, adaptation, alteration, imitation, indigenization, and
internationalization. James R. Krabill, Encounters: What Happens to Music when People Meet? in
Music in the Life of the African Church, ed. Roberta King (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008),
71.
4

Roberta R. King, A Times to Sing: A Manual for the African Church (Nairobi: Evangel, 1999)

327-28.
5

Andrew Wilson-Dickson, A Brief History of Christian Music:From Biblical Times to the

Present (Oxford: Lion, 1997), 295.

understand contrast and differentiate between musical style and praxis from an African point
of view. What is the music context in all its components? How missionaries would have
avoided imposed outside perceptions about Cameroonian music.
In the present paper investigation of key components of the use of the drums and tom
tom in Betis culture in Cameroon is in focus. What are the key components of their music
and main instruments? Three main quests are in focus:
a) What are their ideas about the use of drums or tom tom?
b) What are the activities involved with worship with drumming?
c) What are style, genres, and words, movements attached to it?
Then the bible would serve to correct, and nurture the use of drums within the Church
amid the Beti in Cameroon. In most of African worship, however, dancing, singing and
drumming make part of common worship; it is an integral part of supplication, whereas in the
European Christian view, dancing has been regarded as a profane act.6 Although, this paper is
a regional case study, it is good to be reminded that AfricaNorth, West, East, and South
reflect much of the diversity of the continents culturality: Representative study of one region
may give insight to the rich diversity but also for factors of differences that cross the
boundaries of each region:

Image 1. Map of West Africa

West Africa possesses a multiple layered polyrhythmic type of music in the whole Africa.
There is a wide range of musical instruments, performances, which are attached to one
heritage influenced by Muslim, animistic or traditional interchanges. The West African was
most typically organized in early kingdom and nations states in Africa. This paper
concentrates on what we call the Fang or Beti-Pahouin, which are disseminated in South
Cameroon, north and center of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Central Africa and Congo.
Regionally, West Africa divides into two geographical entities: savanna and forest.
The groups of the savannas were mostly established in empires and nations states and are
more akin to Islamic influence. Their musical culture is also uniform, because of the highly
social organization, role and status of musicians, types of instruments and performances.
6

Nadine A. George, Dance and Identity in American Negro Vaudeville: The Whitman Sisters,
1900-1935, in Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance, ed. Thomas F.
Defrantz (Madison, WS: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2002), 47.

However, although Cameroonian musicians make use of large variety of musical instruments,
such as harps, lutes, lyres, and zither to name few, this study mostly is interested to the drums
and tom tom.
Rhythm is attached to drums. Moses Serwadda and Hewitt Pantaleoni have shown
how drumming and dancing link: A drummer will indicate the dance motions sometimes as
a way of explaining and teaching a [drum] pattern.7 (1968:52). Drummers help dancers in
their movement who try to pattern the body movement to the rhythms of the drums. The
system of von Hornbostel and Sachs (1961) classify the drums as an idiophones, which is
ethnomusicologically accepted:8 Cameroon, as in Africa, musicians draw upon many kinds of
instruments. Drums are best known in various shapes to many people around the world:
goblet, hourglass, conical, barrel, cylindrical, and frame (tambourine). They range from the
smallest handheld to the large instruments.9

Image 2. African music instruments: top left, membranophones (Akan drums from Ghana); top right,
lamellaphones (akongos from northeastern Uganda); lower left, chordophones (nzenze from
northeastern Uganda); lower right, aerophone (chivoti from southern coast of Kenya).

Importance of the Problem

One has to realize how important is the culturally appropriate music for worship and
witness. It is naively believed that biblical accounts of secular and sacred music can be a
taken as a cross-cultural model for all without discriminating regarding the style of music in
7

A Possible Notation for African Dance Drumming, African Music 4 (2): 52; Erich M. von
Hornbostel (1928) African Negro Music, Africa 1: 3062.
8

Hornbostel, Erich Moritz von and Curt Sachs (1961) Classication of Musical Instruments,
trans. AnthonyBaines and Klaus P. Wachsmann, Galpin Society Journal 14 (March 1961): 329.
African people categorize instruments differently from this western orchestral category of strings,
woodwind, brass, and percussion, and also it differ from the ethnomusicological classes of aerophone,
chordophone, membranophone, and idiophone across the continent. See Ruth M. Stone, Introduction
to African Music, in The Garland Handbook of Africa Music, 2e ed. ed. Ruth M. Stone (New York:
NY: Routledge, 2000), 17-18.
9

Ibid.

worship. For most of us, songs and dance is womens province into any society. And in all
societies use music in rites and ceremonies, the moderns may as well just impart the music
found in their own culture without using a proper model.
In the history of Seventh-day Adventist, the introduction of Western hymns contributed to
a lost of African identity and often contributed to a truncated understanding of the Gospel.
Thus, there is a need for a development of culturally appropriate and biblical music for
African Church in general and for Beti in particular in order to foster biblical faith.
However, while it is true that the people of the Bible can be perceived as representative of
any culture as a whole, we ought not to forget that their culture received most of Gods light
and guidance for more that 3000 years. It did not remain static throughout its long history,
thus, we can se the fluctuations that arises in their worship style and usage of musical
instruments. This is important to inform the model this article proposes at the conclusion. The
purpose of the article is to bring the Bible into the larger discussion of a musical instruments
usage in Cameroon. This could illustrate how passages featuring music can still inform the
modern Church and delineate the important factors of cultic and non-cultic songs.
Cultural Problems and Identification
The Beti
Although the Beti-Pahuin can be found in the rest forest area such as Cameroon,
Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, there is more than 20 subtribes with a
common ancestry and history (Beti, Fang, and Bulu). Their mutual dialect is known as the
Beti or the Ewondo language, which unites them among other things such as intermarriages.
The Beti are generally found in southern and Eastern Provinces and are about 1 million of the
Cameroonians. They are organized in patrilineal kingships, where the paternal family live
together in a village, and several related villages make their clans. The chief of the clan is
somehow regarded as the traditional chief and as the religious authority. The Beti were
known as skilled workers in wood and ivory and are still particularly noted for the lively
ritual and festive masks associated with songs and dances, even though modernization has
swiped away much of their cultural and traditional heritage by defoliation because of
Christianity to such an extent that their traditional craft principally is now found in
countryside areas for supplying just the tourist market.
While most Beti are mostly catholic or few are converted to evangelical churches or
Adventists faith, in practice, they are equally engaged in both Christianity and their
traditional worship.10 No matter how long they attend the church and worship God, this does
not always prevent several to turn the mind to their various secret societies or to consult the
traditional healers, if God did not heal them. Indeed, some Betis have dual religion and are
still deeply involved in the indigenous religion whereby sacrifices and rituals are performed
to appease the gods who are called for healing, protect, and bless them.11
Adventism in Cameroon is highly westernized. The process of decolonization of
knowledge, which began with the collapse of European colonial empires in the wake of the
Second World War, did not affect the philosophical worldview amid Adventist in Cameroon.
Western spiritual values have not been publicly denigrated or distorted in the education, for
the African theology has not reached Adventist in Central Africa per se. For example,
African languages are rarely used even in rural area, the main language of worship is French
10

Daniel Tetteh Osabu-Kle, Bulu, Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Molefi Kete
Asante and Ama Mazama (Los Angeles, LA: Sage, 2009), 142.
11

Ibid.

or English, then may follow a translation. Foreign languages and foreign methods are still in
use, although it does not fully address the real issues of African lives, including colonial
oppression. The Philosophy of Bantu, which endeavor the use of traditional religion and
wisdom as the foundation for theology or the unveiling of cultural unity did not pervade as
such SDA Churches in Cameroon. There is an impressive range of different drums in Africa,
as well as in Cameroon.
Use of Drums in Cameroon
If a musical instrument could represent African music, it should be the drum. For, it is
the musical instrument most commonly spread and found in Africa. It belongs to the family
of membranophone family of musical instruments. 12 The sound of membranophone is made
through the vibration of a stretched membrane or skin. Aphorisms sung by choruses or drums,
rattles, harps, zithers, and xylophones would accompany soloists during initiation. Also,
drums are the most of prominent symbols in Cameroonian religious rituals. Usually, drums
are not played by women, but by youth or experienced adults.
Because of the derision and mockery of the missionaries, drumming has almost
disappeared in African religious and non-religious circles. We hear seldom drums being
played about in the countryside; even singers exceptionally would use them. Among the Beti
at Nanga Eboko and in the south, drums have been incorporated only in recent years, after the
missionaries have left. What is prevalent is the modern use of musical instruments. However,
there seems to have occasions whereby drums and xylophones could be played at Church
gathering, If so, how, and when? Drums can produce a broad spectrum of timbres. Church
ensemble does not include, as in Uganda, of the processional drums. The hourglass drum of
West Africa glides is not also represented within the Church. Two different types of drums are
generally played in the ensemble with rattles.

View of the African Primitive Music

Western Missionaries shared, for most of them, that their music was the pride of their
advancement. After all, missionaries were from a more high civilization than the African, and
their music was understood to be more organized.13 The view of western missionaries from
the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) who led the first expedition round the
12

The first to make a scientific categorization for the Museum of Brussels Conservatoire was
Victor-Charles Mahillon (1841-1924) from 1888 onward. He divided instruments into four classes by
their material: (a) self-sounding instruments or autophones, (b) those with membranes, (c) vibratory
or stringed, and (d) wind instruments. Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs have sharpened his
system in 1914. They have brought up a system that can be sum up as, IMCA (idiophones,
membranophones, chordophones, and aerophones). Voir Erich M. von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs,
Classification of Musical Instruments, The Galpin Society Journal 14 (Marsh 1961): 3-29; Sachs,
History, 455-467.; Victor-Charles Mahillon, Catalogue descriptif et analytique du Muse
Instrumental du Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles, 5 vols. 2nd ed. (Brussels: Les Amis de
la Musique, 1978), 189 ; Curt Sachs, Reallexikon der Musikinstrumnente (Berlin, Germany: Georg
Olms Verlag, 1913), I95a ; Etoughe Anani Patrick, The Meaning of Macholah/Machol in the OT
(PhD Dissertation, Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, Philippines, 2014).

Cape of Good Hope in 1497 was at times scornful. For example, a witness from 1725 to 1727
by Father Jean Baptiste Labat who authored less than three works on Africa, amounting to
eleven volumes altogether, which make use of documents available to him.14 For him, African
polyrhythm was seen in scornful way, The Drums which they [the Africans] use in their
armies are the same that they employ in their music; if one can properly give the name of
music or of symphony to the charivaria that they produce with their instruments.15 Sylvain
Meinard Xavier de Golberry from 1785 to 1787 made also prejudice to African music, this
instrument is too complicated to have been invented by the Negros, ignorant of the principles
of music, and only to produce on the balafon a confused and detestable noise. All the blacks
of West Africa have instruments; but they are the most barbarous musicians in the world.16
Missionaries adopted this narrow and ethnocentric view of music. They believed that
polyphonic style of music was exclusively part of Westerns European music. This music was
independent from movements. However, until recently voices started to be heard from
ethnomusicology studies. African music has been misrepresented and need to have an
adequate representation. African are as well as their Europeans musicians counterpart are able
to have polyphonic styles and it is not really true that African music is discordant medley of
sounds.
In what, pejoratively Western musicians call primitive music, sense and value are
paramount qualities . . . In this interweaving with motions and emotions, music is not a
reflex, remote and pale, but an integral part of lie.17 Christoph von Fuerer puts it differently
when he says that African music resounds in the darkness, gripping the singers and blending
them one and all, till they finally merge in the unity of the dance. This rhythm is more than
art, it is the voice of mans primeval instinct, the revelation of the all-embracing rhythm of
growth and decay, of love, battle and death.18
To avoid any queer and often foolish description of primitive music, which often
ridicules the very notion of men made at the image of God, one has to pay attention to Claude
Levy-Strauss advice: Il [un people primitif] peut, dans tel ou tel domaine, tmoigner dun
esprit dinvention et de ralisation qui laisse loin derrire lui les russite des civilises.19
Music of Western African as Cameroonian music has a history and it is a precious and
dignified part of culture, and as such, it demands respect. And God did not send missionaries
to destroy peoples culture, but to preserve what can be crucified in Christ. African music had
been threatened with extermination. Sachs remarks, The melodies of primitive man, an
organic, essential part of his spiritual life, fall victim to Christian missionaries, Soviet agents,
13

Curt Sachs, The Wellsprings of Music, ed. Jaap Kunst (The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1962),

1.
14

Jean-Baptiste (Pere) Labat, Nouvelle relation de lAfrique occidentale contenant une

description exacte de Sngal & des Pays situs entre le Cap-Blanc & la Rivire de Serrelionne, 5
vols. (Paris : Cavelier, 1728), 2 :245-246.
15

Ibid. Translation of Simha Arom, African Polyphony and Polyrhythm : Musical Structure
and Methodology, trans from French Martin Thom, Barbara Tuckett and Raymond Boyd (New York,
NY: Cambridge University Press,2004), 56.
16

Sylvain Meinard Xavier de Golberry, Fragmens d4un voyage en Afrique fait pendent les
annees 1785, 1786 et 1786, dans les contrees occidentales de ce continent, comprises entre le Cap
Blanc de Barbarie . . . et le Cap de Palmes . . .(Paris, 1802).2, 417-18. Translation from Arom,
African Polyphony and Polyrhythm, 51.
17

Curt Sachs, The Wellsprings, 1.

18

Christoph von Fuerer-Haimendorf, The naked (London, 1939), 208.

19

Claude Levi-Strauss, Anthropology structural, 120.

European colonizers, and American oil drillers. And primitive as well as folk melodies are
hopelessly succumbing to a technical age with military service and factory work, with rapid
buses, planes, and cars, with phonographs, radios, and television sets.20 Verrier Elvin and
Shamrao Hivale lament to this situation when they say, One of the most tragic things about
contact of the aboriginal with civilization is the destruction of art and culture that so
frequently follows.21 Whatsoever can be said, this paper agrees with Pierre Billard, when he
says, The Western musical tradition, which is the subject of teaching in the Academies,
cannot be the whole of all of the music of the world . . . It is only one musical tradition
among others,22 and certainly not the best of all the music of this world.
The ancient use of Drums
History
The earliest development of drums began in West Asian civilizations of the third and
second millennia B.C. An Akkadian cylinder seal date about the twenty-fourth century BC
has the earliest iconographic representation of the drum type. Similarly in Egypt,
iconographic sources also attest much of it.23
Drums have usually accompanied or regulated the steps of dancers and marchers and
at times it was used to keep the rhythm.24 Drums present in Ancient civilization a higher form
of art. They used hollow log of wood or in Africa the empty gourd to implement their
rhythmic and tonal instrument of music.25 As in the most ancient societies such as EgyptianSumerian-Akkadian (3000-500 BC), in Africa, dance respond to rhythm as its first
expression. As such it remains the main reason for the use of percussion, which is
indisociably from any primitive society with percussion along with music and lyric in most of
daily life situation.26 Thus, Drums would be traced first to ancient Near East area where four
types of percussions were known (Kettle drums (lilissu), hour-glass-drums (Sumerian,
BALAG), large timbrels (alu), small round (adapa) or square timbrels),27 and Egyptian
civilization in their hieroglyphics scriptures often depicted drums.
The tom tom or the great drum-Religion
and Speech amid the beti

20

Sachs, The Wellsprings, 3.

21

Verrier Elvin and Shamrao Hivale, Folk-Songs of the Maikal Hills (London, 1944), xv.

22

Pierre Billard, Encyclopdia Universalis, s. v. Musicales (traditions).

23

See Francis W. Galpin,The Music of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1937), 2-5
24

Sachs, TheWelspring, 97.

25

Ibid., 96.

26

Richard J. Dumbrill, The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East (Canada: Trafford,
2005), 335; Francis Galpin, The Music of the Sumerians, 2-5; E. A. Wallis Budge, An Egyptian
Hieroglyphic Dictionary (New York, NY: Dover, 1978), s.v. axtit, mait.
27

Dumbrill, The Archaeomusicology, 334-58.

The nkul ou tom tom is the main mean of ancient communication to the Beti. It is a
monoxide instrument with a slit that gives two pitches. It is made, generally, with two big
trees of the rain forest: the ebe (or mukumari) and the mbel or mbee (padouk) of 84 cm long.28

Image 3. The Nkul of the Betis people

This last is also known as esil or esi (examiner) when it is cut in this purpose. This tree is
taken to be a life giver, thats why the tom tom is hollowed out and it is linked to a laid man
who speaks through is mouth. A slit divides the two lips of about 26 cm with respect to a
bridge (Otat nkul) between a median and regulating tongues a stab of machete.
Patiently, the craftsman break the wedges inside the nkul by a wood scissor and of
huge mallet then brings out the two lips, to polish the whole thing, and to make the median
bridge thinner et separate it in two tongues with turned red by fire. This hard work is done
with specific ritual intended to make the tom tom to speak well. The kaolin serves to whiter
the extremities; one of the wedges is taken far away in order to allow its voice to go farther.
The tom tom is smoked out with a creeper wowogo (the one one hears), with crunch leafs
to be able to communicate its sonorities virtues to the tom tom. Then it is made dry into the
sun. But, it will be fully dried up to 2 to 3 years. Then, just then, a name is given to the
instrument.
Exemple : Ze ebere ebe ou Ee ebede ebe
(le lopard mont sur larbre ebe)
The initiation of the nkul is quite long, thats why this kind of communication loses
progressively its way nowadays; still it has led astray more than one colonizer, when the
Europeans came. They marveled to this means of exceptional communication, which can
reach three or four kilometers, sometimes more, if the rainforest is not too thick. According to
Zenker (Germand), the tom tom spoke continually in beti land, and one would telephon
morning and in the evening for an yes or no. Important news, such as, death or birth were
retransmitted over ten kilometers in few times. Indeed, modeling the pitch of the language
and respecting the intensity and the rhythm, the nkul allow a full communication speech to
those who are trained, and to change personal messages via an indicative ndan or endan,
which affect all. To take up the pitch, that is, give a higher tone, Nkul wa ber. Play on it with
28

Engelbert Fouda Etoundi, La tradition et la pratique de ses rites (Cameroun, Sopecam,

2012), 102.

strength is Ma bere nkul, making noise in the house, Nkul wa dun, this gives the impression
that the nkul expresses itself when one plays on it.
The nkul was invented before the coming and the crossing of the river Yom (Sanaga).
According to the frequency of the use, the nkul is linked to the tongue, this invention
originated from the Fang. Well known in Gabon, but it is not well developed amid the bulu.
The nkul had a socio cultural role, since it would be a means of important
communication; this instrument had also another important function: it breaks the distance
and socialized the solitude. It connected clans and families amid the betis, it allowed to be
distant but at the same time benefit of the families. The nkul is the link and one of the best
conservators of traditions.
By repeating mnemonic syllables (which may or may not constitute lexically
meaningful words), performers learn drum sequences and rhythmic patterns. In the rain forest
from Cameroon to the D.R.C., large slit drums have served as talking drums, to send
messages in speech cones.29 Second, the languages of the African continent have been much
better and more systematically researched than the music; linguistic relationships unlock
important chapters in African history and throw indirect light on music history.30
Another kind of instrument is the drum in a trunk of the tree, which has a hole on both
sides. The support is in form of tripod. The resonance comes from a skin of beasts, which
without hair, strongly attached to the truck with wild cords. Nowadays, others kind of wire
are used to make this kind of drum. The surface of the drum is slaked with six or nine knots
drawn downward with small pieces of woods called mvaaga. Also, ethane fold replace the
skin of beasts.31
Esani of the Betis people
Drum is attached to dance even in case of death. For example, the Esani, which is a
warriors dance when an illustrious and brave older man dies, is still performed. It is a
victorious dance, which consecrates life over death; it celebrates the name of the deceased. Its
ritual serves to invite the deceaseds ancestors to come and bring him to the beyond, finally, it
the esani permitted through an ordeal of the ngekembe and other incantations to check
whether the offspring did not caused the death of their father.
Use of Drums in Cameroon
Traditionally, African would use wood, rope, twine or antelope to make drums. There
were drums in cylindrical and conical drums, barrels, hourglasses, waisted drums, goblets and
footed drums, long drums, frame drums, friction drums, and kettledrums. In African
traditional societies, drums play a predominant role. As musical instruments, they give the
tempo of songs and dances during the festivities; however, they also play a preponderant role
in social and religious rituals. Drums punctuate important phases of daily life such as birth,
marriage, funerals, religious rituals, and hunts. To the Betis society, music is a language; their
tom toms are real means of long distance communication. The talking drums transmit
messages according to a precise code: Such rhythm would resound to call the men for
building rural areas; when death strike the royal family, the name of the deceased would be
given through drumming. The slit drum or woody drum, known as tom tom, may reach more
29

Carrington 1949, 1956, 1975.

30

Gerhard Kubik, Questions for Critical Thinking East Africa, in The Garland Handbook of
Africa Music, 2e ed. ed. Ruth M. Stone (New York: NY: Routledge, 2000), 339.
31

Etooundi, La tradition, 102.

than ten kilometers. Its acoustic resonance is indefinite. The Betis use one with tongues for
producing two different sounds likening a spoken language. In fact, their drum, called the
nkul or tam-tam (french), is the means of communication among the Beti. It is a drum shaped
in a wood box with a slot giving two tones.
Music pervaded most of every part of daily life in Cameroon as also with the Betis. At
work, play, or worship do we find music led by drums to the present day. It is almost used at
various ceremonies, rites of passages, dowry, and funerals. Also, drummers, in spiritual
ceremonies, invoke the spirits of the ancestors of the village to appease them or to appeal the
divinities to be possessed by them in traditional worship. Drumming is coupled with singing
and dancing in worship while waiting for the divine, and before the mantic speeches. Thus,
drumming, singing, and dancing are part of African traditional spiritual system of the Betis.
The spirit of the ancestors, various deities, or the creator is invoked through these three
mediums. Most of the independent and Pentecostal churches and various African
denominations are found of these three mediums as base for their worship.32 Also, somehow,
drumming is used amid SDA every Sabbath day before the offerings, or the sermon or the
welcoming of invitees. In Cameroon, timbrels used in mourning, initiation and worship
ceremonies require a ritual. They are sacred vessels, and as such, are kept secret.33
Roles of drummers, singers, and Praise Singers
Drumming so far is gendered, for men of the community are responsible for
performing it. Selected primarily on the basis of their skills to play the two types of drums,
considerations such age and membership seems to be unimportant. There is no clear system
of apprenticeship, since most of their talent is innate. Some members through their families
are well renowned for their ability to rhythm the songs and the dances. In Cameron, it seems
that drumming is also inherited. However, informal training arises at early an age, for some
drummers claim also that they gained their skills by watching and imitating master drummers
during their performances.
The Church, in the south and the east, incorporates drums and tom tom. During
organized Church performances, drummers do not sing or step into the dance array by
playing rhythms that correspond to the dancers steps and movements they are just helper of
dancer performers. Singing woman dancing are usually women; they are called mintophic,
composed mostly of older women in the Church. Their role is to praise God while in
movements. Songs are generally an appeal to spiritual responsibilities; this is clear in most of
their song:
Aluba a nyolo aluba
He he he he esani he
Ndo bentari ya ana
He he he he esani he34

32

Kefentse K. Chike, The Drum, EAR, 221-223; E. A. Dagan, ed., Drums: The Heartbeat of
Africa (Montreal: Galerie Amrad Art, 1993); B. Martin, The Message of Africa Drumming
(Brazaville: Bantoues, 1983).

33

Christian Seignobos et Henry Tourneux, Le Nord-Cameroun travers ses mots:

dictionnaire de termes anciens et modernes (Paris : IRD, 2002 ), 263.
34

Etoundi, La tradition, 104.

There is a reciprocal relationship between music and dance and between dancers and the
mintophic choir. This interdependence is based on the fact that each has to play his/her part as
the community expect. Rhythm amid rural Adventist Churches is only played while the
deacons take tithes and offerings and at times when the members leave out. Whether or not
the performances meet the standards acceptable in a community may depend on the degree of
seriousness with which local musicians and mintophic regards their efforts. Thus, music,
dance and drums go hand to hand, as John Stainer puts it, rhythm is the dance of sound, as
dancing is the rhythm of movement.35 Drumming is at the base of the animation of the
performance. Drums impart a sense of the sacred to the daily and sacramental life of Beti.
Differently of the Dschang peoples Artifacts, as skull of deceased ancestors and musical
equipmentxylophones, drums, and flutesare kept in a secret place in the home of the
eldest living male in each lineage.36
Music in the Old Testament Period37
Class of Musical Instruments in the Bible
The Bible has at least a total of 146 verses dedicated to Music if we follow the count
of E. Kolari, no less than 25 books of the Tanak mention musical instruments. We might find
also at least 20 musical instruments in the Bible with or not attainable results as to the sens
and the meaning of those instruments in modern research.38Modern scholars have defined the
three main class to which instruments belongs with some successes: (1) The plucked stringed
instruments such as kinnor, nevel, asor, qaytros, pesanterin and sabbeka, (2) the two classes
of wind instruments (a) natural horns (qeren or shofar, yovel, mholot,
nhlot, double flute or pipe, mahol (single) flute),39 metallic horn
(hatsotserah) and woodwind (halil, ugav, and mashroqita); (3) percussion instruments
could be divided in two subclasses: (a) membranophones (only top in the Bible) and
idiophones (menaanim, tseltselim/metsiltayim, metsillot, and paomonim).40 Table 1 and 2
summarize the class of musical instrument:
35

John Stainer, The Music of the Bible: with an Account of the Development of Modern
Musical Instruments from Ancient Types (London: Novello, Ewer, n.d.), 3.
36

Emmanuel Komben Ngwainmbi, Bamileke, Encyclopedia of African Religion, ed. Moledi

Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (London, UK: Sage, 2009), 102,
37

From 1-2 Sam and 1-2 Chr and the books of Psalms are the main sources of references to
musical instruments in the Bible or terminology.
38

Yelena Kolyada, A Compendium of Musical Instrumental Terminology in the Bible

(London. Routlege, 2014), 4-6.
39

Those instruments are always used in nominal pairs in the Old Testament with another
musical instrument: bmah hol btopp with hand drum and (single) flute (Pss 149:3 and 150:4; btopp
wkinnor with hand drum and lyre in Gen 31:27), btupp m ubimh holot with hand drums and double
reed flutes (Exod 15:20; Judg 11:34; 1 Sam 18:6; cf. btupp m ubkinnorot with hand drum and
harps in Isa 30:32). And hannh h lot is a term of unknown origin, but most probably of musical
import. The root of it might be of h hll, which is also from the same h hal l flute. However, considering
the LXX hyper tes kleronomouses = }el-hannohelet reading shared by Jerome, Aquila and
Symmaque, that is possibly a designation of a melody is unlikely because most of the times the
lamnassh eah
h h the choirmaster introduce a psalm with a bet essentia, the connection are musical
instruments (Pss 4; 6; 8; 54:1; 56 etc.).
40

Kolyada, A Compendium, 4-6.

Table 1. Class of String Instruments

q taros [qatros]

String (Plucked)
sabbka
nevel

psanter n

assor

Table 2. Class of wind instruments

Wind
Natural
qeren or shofar,
yovel

Metallic horn
hatsotsera

Woodwind
halil, ugav,
masroqta
}

mholot,

nhlot,
double reed flute or
pipe, mahol
(single) flute

Table 3. Classes of percussion instruments

Percussion
Membranophones
top

Idiophones
menaanim, tseltselim/metsiltayim, metsillot, and paomonim

Cultic and Non-cultic Music

Most of the temple music in the First Temple period was contributing in additional
and hence subordinate to sacrificial rite (cf. 1 Chr 29: 21-25; 2 Chr 5:14; 7:3-7; 30:21). The
priests were helped with sacred orchestra: 120 trumpeters, singers and cymbals and with the
instruments of the songs (bikle hass r), which were musical instruments in praise of God (2
Chr 5:12-13; 2 Chr 23:13). These sacred instruments ensemble are attached to the Levites:
nbalm wkinnorot umsiltayim harps, lyres and cymbals (or
kle daw d 1 Chr 15:16; 2 Chr 29:27; 34:12; Neh 12:36).
According to Eric Werner, all Temple music irrespective of the period was nothing
more than a accessory to its sacrificial rite.41 The Hebrew bible has a good deal of
information concerning the social and spiritual function of musical instruments. There is the
accompanying ritual of processions to the Temple, Temple services, and the ceremony of the
court. These can be divided into cultic and non-cultic rituals. In this section, the First temples
practice of music is in Focus.
41

E. Werner, From generation to generation: studies on Jewish musical tradition (New York:
American Conference of Cantors, 1967), 6.

The Bible situates the First temple, commonly called Salomons Temple about 950
BC, which stood until 587 when Nebuchadnezzar (605-561 BC) ordered it to be destroyed.
The temple laid in ruin during the time of the Babylonian captivity (587/6-539 BC). Worship
at Jerusalem temple was sacrificial at first although other cultic worship place were known in
Ancient Israel and Judah: The house of the Lord at Shiloh (1 Sam 1:1-9), and also, the shrine
at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:26-30), the Hill of God at Gilgal (1 Sam 10:5-8), the cultic
places in the neighborhood of Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:31-32), and the tabernacle of the
LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon (1 Chr 16:39-40). These high places or place
of worship had a bamah where sacrifices were offered. When he was faithful to the
Lord, Solomon made a great high place at Gibeon were thousand burnt offering were
offered on the altar (1 Kgs 3:4). Apart from the altar of the Lord at Jerusalem, Salomon, on
the wake of his unfaithfulness, built also altars east of Jerusalem and to the south for other
gods (2 Kgs 23:9-14). The archeology brought also confirmation of this picture. Many
temples were uncovered at Schechem (c. 1650-1550 BC), Megiddo (Late Canaanite period, c.
1400-1300 BC), Beer Sheba, Lachish (pre-exilic, from Monarchic period), Arad (from the
time of Salomon) and Mamre in Hebron (postexilic).42
The worship of the deity in these rival sanctuaries was different, for Gods presence
was incorporeal and invisible. Its presence was in the Ark of the Covenant or Gods throne
(Jer 3:17). When Jerusalem became the siege of Davidic kingdom, the Ark was removed to
the city of David with all Israel rejoicing, music and dance, and sacrifices of seven bulls and
seven rams (1 Chr 15:26), and then before God inside the tent Pitched for it, they offered
burnt offerings and peace offerings (1 Chr 16:1). When Salomon built the temple, the Ark
was placed in the Holy of Holies to indicate that Gods rest now in His sanctuary. Early in the
sixth Century BC, the Ark disappeared in the Temple and was never be found (cf. Jer 3:16).
Thereafter, the empty Holy of Holies was the symbol of Gods indwelling itself.
The task of removing the Ark of the Covenant was carried out in two stages. In the
first attempts to Baale-Judah to the House of Abinadab where the Lord struck Uzzah dead,
celebration took place as in Canaanite orchestral fashion with songs and lyres and harps and
tambourines and castanets and cymbals [footnote]. The phrase msahh q m lippne haloh m,
Playing before the Lord show the playful tone of the occasion, for sahaq a by-form of
sahaq means in the qal to laugh, to amuse, entertain with jests (cf. Judg 16:27), but
in the intensive piel, to be merry (with singing and dancing in the round; 1 Sam 18:7; 1 Chr
13:8; 15:29; Jer 30:19; 31:4). The parallel passage does not give the same instruments:
1 Chr 13:8

42

2 Sam 6:5

For the plans of some of those pagans temples, see Aharon Kempinski, Ronny Reich et al.
ed., The Architecture of Ancient Israel: From the Prehistoric to the Persian Periods (Jerusalem,
1992), 163; Soggin, An Introduction, 364.

wdaw d wkol-yisrael msahh q m lippne

haloh m bkol-oz ubs r m ubkinnorot
ubinbal m ubtupp m ubims hiltayim
:ubahh sos
h h rot
David and all Israel were celebrating before
God with all their might, even with songs
and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals
and with trumpets.(NAU)

wdawid wkol-bet yisrael msahh q m lippne

yhwh bkol seh bros m ubkinnorot
ubinbal m ubtupp m ubimnaanm
ubs helsel
h m
Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel
were celebrating before the LORD with all
kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and
with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and
cymbals. (NAU)

The Chronicler confounds bkol s he bros m, all the instruments of juniper and
bring the holem at the beginning and transposes the resh at the end of the word so as to have
bkol s he bros m, with all his strength and with songs; and the percussion instruments
imna{an{m, rattle and hasosrot, trumpet (metallic long and straight
instrument, LXX, ) and sels
h hel m, (LXX, )clanging cymbals are replaced
with mesiltayim,
disc cymbals in Chronicle. Disc cymbals were the type known by the
h
time of the writing, whereas the trumpet, he justify the priestly character of the procession
and of the sacrificial rites that accompanied it. It was for the chronicler as late in the Psalms,
a sacred occasion commemorated with joy, loud noise, dance and merrymaking as in the time
of the Festival (cf. Lev 23:24). Music served the purpose for dancing however; there is no
mention of music played before the sacrificial rites. Plucked instruments, percussion
instruments and the shofar constitute the c43ore for procession.
While Chronicles contains a large quantity of musical information about music in the
First Temple, scholars have doubted it because it is a postexilic production (about 350 BC)
and they believe Chronicles to add supplementary information, which are not found in the
period itself. Most scholars believe that Chronicles supplementary ads are maybe retrojected
from the time when Chronicles were written.44But in this paper, Chronicles is not only
historically reliable concerning music, but also authoritative for the purpose of earlier
testimonial of Hebrew text.
The second attempt, three months later, to bring the Ark from the house of Obed
Edom to the city of David gives a detail most important for our purpose. This time, the
Levites, the bearers of the Ark would be included (1 Sam 6:13-14//1 Chr 15:26-27). 2 Sam
6:15 says that the Ark was brought with the shouting and the sound of the trumpet, whereas
for the Chronicles, the horn, with the trumpets, with loud sounding cymbals, with harps and
lyres (1 Chr 15:28). In spite of these additional musical instruments, which are more
harmonizing than something else, both parallel passages agree that the percussion instrument
was not there. The narrative portrays David as a priest, since he offered sacrifices (2 Sam
6:13) and whirled [mkarker] with all his might before the Lord. When David and all the
people in procession, with joy, shout and dancing, they did so by means of playing of
plucked-string instruments, various percussion instruments, and the shofar. However, the
music accompanied most probably the dances, because they are never in association with the
sacrifices both during the transport of the ark or when it came to rest in Jerusalem. In the Old
Testament, stringed instruments
43

See for eg., John Arthur Smith, Music in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity (England:
Ashgate, 2011), 39.
44

John W. Kleinig, The Lords Song: The Basis, Function and Significance of Choral Music
in Chronicles (Sheffield: xx, 1993), 16; Smith, Music, 40.

The music played with pipe or flute and tambourine are mostly played in nonsacrificial cultic context. It is usually played at night during festivals and during joyful
processions to the Temple correspondingly. The drums that was played was the topp timbrel,
tambourine, a held and struck musical instrument, especially by dancing maidens. Usually
associated with other musical instruments in sign of merriment, gladness (cf. Gen 31:27; Job
21:12), revelry (Isa 5:12; 24:8), exultation and triumph (Exod 15;20; Judg 11:34; 1 Sam 18:6;
Isa 30:32; Jer 31:4). The topp is the general term mostly stands for tambourines and small
drums. We know example of this common instruments of percussion in ancient times from
Egypt and Mesopotamian excavations. The fact that this percussion instrument is not listed
among cultic instruments given by David (1 Chr 15:16-24; 16:4-6,42; 25:1-6), indicates that
it was mostly played in non-cultic setting as the processions (1 Chr 13:8) in the night after or
during festivals (Pss. 81:2; 149:3; 150:4).
In Ps 149:3-5, the text reads and it is translated as such:
yhallu smo bmah hol btopp wkinnor
yzammru-lo
k -ros heh yhwh bammo yppaer naw m
:b suah
yalzu hh s dm bkabod yrannnu almiskbotam

Let them praise His name in dance; with

timbrel and lyre let them chant His praises.
For the LORD delights in His people; He
adorns the lowly with victory.
Let the faithful exult in glory; let them shout
for joy upon their couches,

The music played with such instruments as pipe and flute are used for non-sacrificial
cultic setting. The flute-pipe played is known as h hal l (plu. h holah m); Joachim Braun suggests
that it was a slender reed pipe, possibly single but more probably double with a mouthpiece
in each pipe as the Ancient Near East archeology.45 Why do the use of drums and the flute
were forbidden? Was it because they were noisy?46 If we scrutinize the book of Psalm,
scholars suggest that at least 38 psalms be supposed to have been composed during the First
Temple period and only 30 during the exile.47 These musical occurrences in many of these
psalms confirm that vocal and instrumental music were played in the Temple as it was done
in non-cultic setting. Psalms 43, 61, and 62 have evident sacrificial contexts. For music is
played while offering sacrifices. And phrases such as: coming to your altar (43:4), paying
vows (61:9) or entering Gods house with burnt offerings (66:13) allude to this.
Pss 68, 81, and maybe Pss 95 and 118 confirm instruments such as timbrels and flute,
in non-sacrificial cultic settings during processions. Psalm 68:25-26 says:
rau hl koteka loh m hl kot el malk
baqqodes
qiddmu sar m ah har nogpn m btok lamot
toppeppot

They see your processions, O God! The

processions of my God, my king in the sanctuary
(v. 25)

45

See Joachim Braun, Biblical Instruments, New Grove 2/3 (2002), 3:525-26; Joachim
Braun, Music in Ancient Israel/Palestine: Archaeological, Written, and Comparative Sources, trans.
Douglas W. Stott (Grand Rapids MI, 2002).
46

See Elwyn A. Wienandt, Opinions on Church Music: Comments and Reports from Fourand-a-half Centuries (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 1974), 294. Also by the time where music
of the church was purely vocal and that only the organ was permitted, the others instruments were not
used, The employment of the piano is forbidden in church, as is also that of noisy or frivolous
instruments such as drums, cymbals, bells and the like (p. 340).
47

Listed in Table 5 in S. E. Gillingham, The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994), 2534, and Ps 95 is borderline between the two periods.

In front are the singers followed by those who

play musical instruments amidst the maidens who
beat the timbrel (my translation, v. 26)

The term nogpn m in v. 25 is a cognate of nogpan, which is as earlier than the pre-exilic
biblical literature. It is likely that in processions cultic and non-cultic instruments can be used
together. The stringed instruments being however unspecified here, does not preclude us to
guess what kind of instruments were being played. The term ungpinotay and we will play
music on stringed instruments (Esa 38:20), which is an accusative cognate is from the verb
nagan referring to mocking song (Lam 3:63), this verb occurs in connection with song or
singers (Ps 33:3; 68:25; Isa 23:16) and three times it is played in musical ensemble with the
kinnor lyre and pre-exilic and exilic periods (1 Sam 16:16, 23 and Isa 23:26). Thus, without
doubt here too, the lyre is understood here too.
Psalm 68 shows that at non-sacrificial ritual, the participants were of mixed genre.
The psalmist lists the participants in the processions as sar m singers, nogpn m players on
stringed instruments, and lamot maidens who would give the beat of the procession with
their drum.48 Music is part of the life and their absence implies death. When Gods reign
would come the people of God will celebrate with music. Thats why Gods people would
celebrate victory through non-cultic music. Smith shows how victory was celebrated,
music song and the playing of hand drums and dancing were normal components of the
celebrations. The music of the victors consisted of song in thanksgiving to
the Deity (who was perceived as having granted the victory).49 Since Miriam celebrating
Gods victory at the Red Sea (Exod 15:20-21) singing, dancing and percussion instruments
were used to welcome the victor in 1 Sam 18:6-8:
As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the
women came out of all the cities of Israel, to sing (lasur) and with double flute
(whammh holot), to meet King Saul, with tambourines (btupp m), with joy, and with
sistrums (ubsalis m).
The women were singing to one another (wattanenah) while dancing (hamsahh qot), and
they were saying: Saul has slain his thousands; David, his tens of thousands!
Similar celebration are attributed to David in 1 Sam 21:12 and 29:5 as in Judges 11:34; it
serves the purpose to acknowledge that the deity has granted His people the victory through
his messenger; normally all consequence is that praise in body movements ware acceptable
means of praising God, but not inside the Temple.
Musical Ensembles
Instruments, in the Bible, can both used independently (mainly the soppar: Lev 25:9;
Josh 6:4-6 etc.) or with non-homogeneous kind of harmonized instruments: plucked string
instruments, kinnor lyre and nevel harp (Ps 57:8; 71:22), wind instruments, soppar horn
and hh sos
h h rot trumpets (2 Chr 15.14; 98:6) and percussion, topp tambourine and
shallishim sistrum (1 Sam 18:6). There is also performance with heterogeneous kind of
instruments: ubkinnorot ubinbal m ubtupp m ubimnaanm ubsels
h hel m in 2 Sam 6:5; .
ktopp wkinnor, and ugpab flute in Job 21:12; an ensemble of 120 Levites choir with
mesiltayim
cymbals, nebal m, kinnorotin 2 Chr 5:12.
h
48

Smith, Music in Ancient Judaism, 49.

49

Ibid., 161.

At times the instruments are used to form a important band such as in the case of the
prophets around the 1030-1010 BC (1 Sam 10:5); it would include three established or
Canaanite orchestra groups of instruments in the Ancient Near East: strings (kinnor and
nebel), woodwind (h hal l double reed) and percussion topp. Whenever the Levites would
be present in cultic or non-cultic rites, the same Canaanite orchestra would be used (string
kinnor r and nebel; wind hh sos
h h rot, and percussion) lest the percussion would be changed
with a non-beat instrument as the mesiltayim
cymbals (cf. 1 Chr 15:28). The pagan ritual in
h
the court at Babylon in the sixth Century BC under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II uses a
similar orchestra with different kind of percussion, maybe because of the pomp of the event:
string q taros [qatros], psanter n, and sabbka; brass qarna; wind masroq taand
sumponya. This orchestra is said to be formed of different kind of instruments (wkol zne
zmara, vv.5,7,10,15).

Model for the use of tom tom

in Cameroonian context
If there is continuity between the music of the Temple with that of the of New
Testament Church,50 then the fact that the tom tom resounds well and strong, it means that it
can be used to intensify the atmosphere of joy during Church gathering in para-cultic
occasions. Ensembles of drums with others instruments such as reed pipes, lyres, harps or
cymbals indicate first that music was done by skilled musicians in these context too as in the
Temple performance.51 The tom tom falls into the side of folk song tied to African heritage
and traditional dances. The music performed by it contains melodic which is the heritage of
the past generation, along with the indigenous orchestral instruments such as flute, belles and
drums. This folk music would keep the disappearance of African tradition in contemporary
society and preserve it over centuries.
The tom tom could be considered as a para-cultic artifact that should played only in
the setting of gathering of the Church, which is not proper worship; it has to be excluded to
proper cultic use, which foster the presence of God and help people to get near to him.
Considering the fact that the Temple service, the synagogue or the early Church did not use
the drums either for signals only, thus, the tom tom has to serve as a kind of celebratory
music. The cymbals were intended to help priests to continue or stop the sacrificial service or
for the congregation to indicate that the service was finish.52 Generally, non-cultic or paracultic settings call for a blended liturgy and folkloric songs. People can rejoice by stamping
their feet or beat the drums in sign of rejoicing.
Drums might be used in communal festivities where vernacular songs and popular
dances.
Conclusion
The tambourine of all kind indeed had become symbols of African traditional religion
50

Voir Eric Werner, ed., Contribution to a Historical Study of Jewish Music (Jerusalem:
Ktav, ), 6-7.
51

Irene Heskes, Passport to Jewish Music: Its History, Traditions, and Cultus (London:
Greenwood, 1994), 42.
52

Contre Ibid., 43.

and thus associated with pagan practice, with a falling from rectitude from the virtues of
Judeo an Christian practices representing immorality. In both Synagogue and Early Church
worship, instruments were abandoned to the benefit of oral song during worship.
However, African traditions, most part of time, parallel the music of the Bible. Drums
and tambourines could be used in Church liturgy amid the betis as elsewhere in para-cultic
Church gathering. Traditional approaches to music is rather welcomed as to bring African
flavor in worship services, there is nothing like spiritual superiority, but Bible followers. With
this peculiar musical instrument, the beti have a way to live their history, traditions and
culture. During the years, occasions for ingathering can create opportunities to have folk
melodies; singing Gods goodness for them. Christianity should crucify the culture, not to
destroy it, because culture remains a part of them. There is thus a valid mandate in doing
mission to preserve the African culture and music as widely as possible for future generation,
lest there will face a lack of continuity. This state of affairs is detrimental to the general world
culture as well for the sake of Africa.
The theological model proposed here depends of biblical criteria for the use of
musical instruments, with a greatest focus on tambourine. Five criteria can be given to guide
the usage of any instrument in modern times: (1) identify the modern or African instrument in
its own classification, (2) determine whether is was used in a proper cultic or paracultic
context, (3) notice whether the use of this instrument serve to edify the members in the
congregation, since no usage or practice must be acceptable if it does not lead to that, (4)
what is the inward and outward attitude of worshippers whenever the instrument is used? It is
with those principles that the tom tom would serve a significant biblical and communal ritual
function. Since the Bible shows fairly well, as shown in this article, that these instruments
were more used in secular occasions, most part of time away from the religious sanctuary
with what it is never mentioned concomitantly. During the pre-Temple period, the
tambourine was confined to the eastern end of the ritual tent, usually in the vineyard or into
the auxiliary court of women, for the use of women choir. Although the tom tom has
become associated paganisms or with manifestations of immoral acts, this proposed modele
might be significant for Church at worship.