The Asahi Shimbun Displays
Objects In Focus
12 August – 10 October 2010 / Room 3 / Free
Discover the drum that travelled from West Africa to Virginia through the Transatlantic Slave Trade
The Akan drum is the oldest African-American object in the
British Museum, brought from West Africa to the Colony of Virginia
as part of the slave trade around 1735. ‘Akan’ refers to an ethnic
and linguistic group from West Africa which includes
the Fante, Asante and Akuapem, and its culture is most apparent
today in Ghana.
The drum was acquired by Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection formed the basis of the British Museum when it was founded in 1753. Broadcaster, playwright, and British Museum Trustee Bonnie Greer has been involved in the creation of the display, and it focuses on two main themes – the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the origins of African-American music.
The first part of the display describes the journey of the drum from West Africa to the Colony of Virginia, relating the suffering and displacement of peoples as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
This journey would have typically included the practice of
‘dancing the slaves’, where enslaved Africans were forcibly
exercised on board the
slave ships, a practice in which it is likely this
drum would have played a part.
The second part of the display examines the massive influence of
African and African-
American music on most popular music from the
20th century onwards, including jazz, blues, R&B,
and rock ’n’ roll.
The drum is one of the objects featured in the British Museum
and BBC Radio 4 series
A History of the World in
100 objects
Image: Akan drum. Made in West Africa and
collected in the American colony of Virginia probably between 1710
and 1745.
‘The drummer is calling me’ is a quote from the poem Limbo by
Edward Kamau Brathwaite (b. 1930). In it, he likens the practice of
‘dancing the slaves’ to a limbo dance in Africa.
