Strategies Employed by Dagbamba Drummers in Revealing the Identity of their Patrons

Abstract

This work analyses the strategies employed by Dagbamba drummers in revealing the identity of their patrons in the praises they sing. Dagbamba are an ethnic group in the Northern Region of Ghana. Drummers form a special unite of this ethnic group and they are those who sing praise songs among the Dagbamba. In this paper, the researcher identified four (4) strategies that are used by the drummers when singing praise songs. The strategies identified and discussed are 1) using a person’s patrilineal line to tell who he is, 2) using the matrilineal line of a subject to reveal his/her identity, 3) using the heroic deeds of a subject to tell his identity and finally, 4) blending the first three (3) strategies to reveal/conceal the subject’s identity. The paper also shows that there are other minor strategies that the drummer will combine with the four (4) main strategies when singing praise songs.