DVDs with the Elders: Babatunde Olatunji
The world’s home for the wisdom of elders is the continent of Africa. Virtuoso drummer Babatunde Olatunji of Nigeria is shown in this picture, pointing at his drumming hand, telling us that his hands are soft—in spite of spending his life hitting drums. This direct instruction is one the handful of gems in 2004’s African Drumming.
When I really, really began to take measurement and think about it, it suddenly became strange that there are so few instructional videos from African elders. There should be a Nollywood-offshoot-market of such “African Martha Stewart” DVDs—without such 19th-century, American, evangelical Christian overtones.
I was so grateful to sit with the whole family in front the home screen and experience African Drumming that I still recommend this video to this day—regardless of how Babatunde Olatunji refers to himself as the “inventor” of his drumming technique (articulating the five sounds, gun goh doh pah dah). I understand why an African man would be firm about getting credit for his innovations in music but the use of the word “inventor” makes music sound like a white man’s military machine instead of the ancient presence that music be…