RESONATOR
A shékere I use (of African, Yoruba origin), and the guiro scraper (originally known from Cuba, but also long used among Amerindians in South America) – both made from dried calabash - would not be the same without the calabash, or gourd, as resonator. That because it is in reality not just a resonator, but also a natural “amplifier”.
The dried gourd is hard and firm enough for that use. Interestingly, a small balafon (xylophone-like) I have, from Senegal, has gourds as resonator under the stones, to very nice effect. Recently I got a shaker made of gourd/calabash, in a “bottle” shape – a bottle gourd- probably from Igbo culture in SE Nigeria, similar to shape as the shékere, but without beads around it.
Another shaker I have for a long time (even before I delved more intensively into percussion, since about 2006) consisted of two calabash resonators on each side of a kind of basket, filled with metal beads. Here also the calabash makes the difference with other shakers, but I maybe did not realize it that much even. I just liked the sound, and how it combined with other instruments.
The Kalimba thumb piano – a wide-spread modern (“westernized’) simplification of the Zimbabwean Mbira thumb piano – also is often made often of gourd, although the one I have is – as someone said – probably from coconut (also common). The original Mbira (with more metal tines) – by the way used traditionally the gourd.
Another lamellophone/thumb piano I have is actually African, from Cameroon, but is also from wood (with bamboo tines). Calabash/gourd is however used a lot for African instruments, as resonators (also for Kora lutes, for instance, mbiras, or musical bows), and as “drum” itself.
Thus throughout my percussion compositions (I call these “percussion instrumentals”), or jamming with percussion instruments live in some clubs, I in fact used “calabash” quite regularly, but especially as resonators, contributing therefore to some degree nicely to the whole musical experience. It was therefore in this sense like the proverbial “elephant in the room”, though not as much ignored, as just not deeply analysed.
I suddenly realized that I have quite a lot of dried “calabash” in my house, spread throughout several instruments, haha. A percussionist’s thing..
SHEKERE
The shékere shaker (beads around a calabash with a hole) – common in Yorubaland, Nigeria, but spread throughout Latin America, might be the best known use, with the roundish beads wrapped around it. Enslaved Yoruba and other Africans brought this to Cuba, Brazil, and other countries. The shékere is still used there, especially in folk culture, such as Afro-Cuban and –Brazilian religions (Santería, Candomblé).
In addition, especially the larger Shékeres – known as sekere in Yoruba – function often as calabash drum as well, as it is tapped at the bottom while shaken at the same time, customary also in traditional Yoruba music (SW Nigeria, Benin).
Interestingly, the also quite well-known Cabasa shaker – more modern and with metal beads, was developed in Brazil as a modernization of that Shékere, but without calabash (instead: wood, metal, and plastic) in its shaking or resonating. The calabash Shékere however still tends to be more used traditionally in Brazil, as in Cuba, and elsewhere in the Americas and Africa.
In more southern Africa, by the way, the gourd/calabash also has a resonator function for the semi-percussive “musical bows” there (Angola, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa), the foreparent – of course – of the Berimbau bow of Afro-Brazilian Capoeira (still using a gourd resonator for the sole string).
AS DRUM
Directly hitting or drumming on a calabash also is possible of course – to which the large Shekere use already hinted, but without the beads -, and I got interested in that later. I hit the calabash shaker I have with a stick sometimes as extra sound (even live in the mic), but especially in Africa itself, actual calabash, or gourd, “drums” are still commonly used, also played by hands. In fact, this is the case in a large part of Africa: from Mali and Ghana, Cameroon, to even more southern in Southern Africa, alongside its mentioned use for musical bow resonators, and large and small balafons (in fact all over Africa).
I vaguely knew this, but my interest in this was revived when I saw another musician I know (drums and percussion) in the Netherlands, Freddy Poncin, play a larger calabash drum (open bottomed) at a concert in Amsterdam. Poncin played with several (also Jamaican) Reggae artists as a drummer, but in this case played that calabash drum – with a kind of bass function – on a concert, November 2023, accompanying nicely local Surinamese-Dutch Reggae artists Rapha Pico and Miriam Simone in Amsterdam.
Instead of a standard drum kit, this concert had two percussion sets for the rhythm section, one by Freddy Poncin (the other one played by experienced Netherlands-based Reggae percussionist Ras Maiky), turning out groovy (read: danceable) enough as replacement of that drum kit. I got especially intrigued by the unusual use of that calabash drum by one of the percussionists, Freddy Poncin.
It was then that I entered something more “new” for me: the calabash as drum. Theoretically it was not new to me, but in reality I did not encounter it as much. I saw - also online – how Africans played such a large calabash (with open bottom), alone or in a drum ensemble, rendering a low, full sound. It can be played with sticks and hands.
When with hands, there was one hand use that intrigued me, as it seemed adapted to the unique material and sonic characteristics of the calabash shell: the fist-down hit (like when you slam your fist on the table, pinky-side down). This “fist down” hit on a larger calabash drum renders a deeper, nice sound (bass-like), that sounds quite unique, when compared to other (skin-based) drums, or wood-based instruments I am used to playing. A distinct, unique sound.
Sure, on larger skin-based drums this fist-down (pinky at bottom) hit is possible, but usually does not add much difference, from e.g. a palm hit. For a calabash drum it seemed more required for a certain sound.
In Ghana and Burkina Faso this calabash drum is e.g. known, but in other parts of Africa as well: the Mande-speaking regions (Mali, Niger, Guinea, a.a.). It is most known from that West African region, but further study showed it is also used as drum (besides as resonator) or “hitting block” up to Southern Africa.
A pity I could not find such a calabash drum for my collection and compositions (and jamming), I began to think..
WATER DRUM
Another use that intrigued me was the “water drum” use of the calabash. I read about this in a paper book I have since long (‘Trommels & klankinstrumenten’, by Töm Klöwer), in Dutch, translated from German (title transl.= Drums and sound instruments). This water drum was mainly found among the Malinké en Senufo people, spread throughout Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast, this book said.
In this instrument, in a large though emptied melon basin filled with water, half-calabashes are put in belly-up, and hit with a kind of spoon (also traditionally made from calabash), by the prestigious female Poro community. Whereas in many African culture skin-based drums are the domain of men, these water calabash drums are played by women.
This skin-based-drum played only by men in Africa is a common gender division, though more strictly upheld (traditionally at least) in West Africa, and less so in Central and Southern Africa, where women more often play skinned drum. The calabash-based water drum in West Africa – not skinned - can however be played by women.
This division (men can only play skin drums) might seem strange or sexist to some, or at least rigid. Motivations given for it relate mostly to (spiritually) “purity” or “strength”, or (socially) “desexualizing” the context, especially in sacred settings. Some – more practically - associate it with the skin and wood: taking skin of killed or deceased animals for drum skin, and chopping and reworking wood, are “men’s jobs” (also in Europe, btw), so also the drumming that they result in..
The Nyabinghi drummers of the Jamaican-originated, spiritual and Afro-centric Rasta i movement, still more or less uphold this distinction, as often only men drum, and women tend to play shakers and chant along. This water drum in Mali/Burkina Faso/Ivory Coast, however is played by women, and is known in the local language as “gi dunu”, a funny “onomatopoeia”, as linguists call it: the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named. In this case a “watery” sound.
Indeed, its sound is kind of “gi dunu-like” , “underwater” bass-like, and deep and warm. They exist in different sizes, with differing tonality. More modern uses (also by Westerners and men), include with metal basins, newer sticks, or played by hand.
The Tuareg nomadic people in Northern Mali and around (Berber language, mixed with black Africans) use a similar calabash water drum, to imitate the sound of the camel, so crucial in their desert lives.. Also an interesting use. Men play it among the Tuareg.
DOMESTICATION
According to Wikipedia, the gourd or calabash was known in Asia from “ever since”, so to speak, at least since around 8000 BC, then around 4000 BC in Africa, then parts of Europe, and not long after Asia, being there long, so long before Columbus came. It was also “domesticated” in cultivation (adapted, strengthened by humans) quite soon in history, in all these continents.
ASIA AND ELSEWHERE
It is therefore quite possible that those musical functions of gourds (resonator or percussive) could be found outside of Africa as well. I became curious, but know also that Africa is the most percussive continent. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true musically: Africa is the most percussive/percussion-rich continent. It also is, also almost a cliché, the most rhythm-focused continent, especially sub-Saharan Africa.
I said this before, but over-simplifying one can say that, musically, Europe focuses overall more on harmony, Asia on melody, and Africa on rhythm.
Tellingly, a known example from a gourd-based traditional instrument in China is a reed instrument: the “gourd flute”, or Hulusi, in fact known in a larger part of Asia, from Myanmar/Burma, to Vietnam, and mainly in the most southwestern of China’s provinces, Yunnan, bordering both Burma and Vietnam, and with a subtropical climate. So, as resonator it is found outside of Africa and the African Diaspora (in the Americas) as well. The flute consists of bamboo flutes, with a gourd resonator. Drum in Chinese is “gong”, and in Chinese, and other Asian music, metal seems indeed the preferred material for “drums” or general rhythmical functions. Skin drums are not absent, but of lesser importance, and calabash as drum (as in e.g. Mali, Africa) also unknown..
The Chinese/SE Asian Hulusi resembles in sound somewhat the Clarinet, and has popularity in some regions, and the calabash resonator is part of that. Hulu in its name is Mandarin for “calabash gourd”, by the way, recognizing its importance. There are similar reed/flute instruments in China as well, such as the Sheng.
In India the gourd is also used as a resonator of reed instruments, but has in the remarkable Gopichanta (or Ektara) instrument, which is a string instrument with also a drumming/tapping function. Besides in the India region (inc. Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh) a similar instrument is found in Egypt.
In Vietnam there is likewise a string instrument using a gourd/calabash resonator, called Dan Bau, known as “gourd zither”. Bau is “gourd” in Vietnamese, Dan means “string instrument”.
In the Middle East and Turkey regions, the gourd resonator is found also with stringed instruments, with violins (The Kemane violin in Turkish folk music) and other string instruments, like lutes, as the Kora in (Islam-influenced parts of) Africa.
All very interesting, but not really percussion, being my main field of interest and expertise. The shaker among Amerindians in the Americas (the early Maracas: that I also wrote a blog post about), as well as scrapers, used gourd/calabash as resonators, and are more in the percussion category (idiophones, they call them). The guiro shaker in Cuba tends still to be made of calabash.. The Amerindians also knew the Peyote “rattle” made of gourd.
Yet, shakers and scrapers were also long known in Africa, also with gourd resonators, long before colonialism, so to say.
INTERNATIONAL DIFFERENCES
It is just that the material characteristics of dried calabash (in its later domesticated form) as hard and water-resistant, made it suitable for many functions, across various cultures, as containers and carriers for households, and more, especially in subtropical and tropical climates. From Spain (where the word Calabaza – at the root of English calabash as synonym of “gourd” – appeared from Moorish Arabic, in the times of Moorish Spain, with probably Persian roots) to Vietnam, and from Turkey to Namibia, and to South America (where gourds once arrived from Africa, long before Columbus), the calabash was found useful.
Yet, in culturally different ways, and here again becomes evident that “Africa is the most percussive continent” is perhaps a cliché, but certainly not nonsense. Calabash used for specifically drums or blocks are really only found on the African continent or in the African Diaspora in the Americas. Then gourds were traditionally used as resonators of musical bows (in southern Africa, like in Angola, South Africa, Zambia – the Brazilian Berimbau in Capoeira derived from this), for types of harps and lutes as the Kora in Sahel/West Africa and the Mande-speaking regions (Mali, Guinea, and around) - not to forget the precursors to the Afro-American Banjo -, marimba and balafon, both “xylophone-like” instruments in large parts of Africa (from Senegal to Mozambique).., all using calabashes/gourds as resonators.
The use for different types of shakers (shékere being the best-known) of gourd/calabash for shakers goes way back in Africa: in fact known as early as the maracas shakers among natives in the Americas.
Besides in Africa, and partly among Amerindians, calabash functioned more secondary to melodic and harmony instruments (reed and string instruments) in most of Asian cultures, and seldom percussively, as in Africa.
The solid, dried calabash was used across cultures and continents, but in different ways. We call these “cultural differences”, that seem predictable, but are largely true, with nuances: for string instruments in the Middle East and India, flutes/reed instruments in South East Asia, shakers/scrapers in the Americas, and for shakers/scrapers and for drums and more other percussion-like instruments in Africa.
All cliché’s generalize too much, and of course most folk music – world wide! - combines to differing degrees melody-harmony-rhythm.. It’s just a matter of emphasis. Even within musical “cultural zones”. For instance the folk music of Spain and Southern Italy has relatively more “rhythmic aspects” than elsewhere in Europe, while Italian folk music (as its classical music) is more “melodic” when compared to German/Austrian more “harmonic” folk music influences. Classical music enthusiasts sometimes point at the – relative - “rhythmic” strength of Spanish classical music (by e.g. Manuel de Falla), the “harmonic” strength of German/Austrian compositions, and in turn the more “melodic” strength of Italian classical compositions.
India, Indonesia, South East Asia (and the aboriginals), as well as the Middle East, of course know drum and percussion instruments as well, though often with secondary functions to more melodic or harmonic pieces.
Calabash drums (and scrapers) in Africa, however also foreground Calabash musically, rhythmically, as main instrument, as it does with the other (skin-based) drums, often with polyrhythms (several rhythms at the same time), especially important and common in sub-Saharan African traditional music.
Interesting, and illustrative, cultural differences therefore also show in the different historical and present calabash/gourd uses in different regions, especially its musical and wider creative use..
MODERN POP
Its present use in modern, mostly electric (“western”) “pop” or “rock” music, is of course more limited, though “calabash” as sound maker or resonator can be found as part of the added percussion sections of especially modern Afro-American genres like Reggae, Salsa, Merengue, Soca, or even Soul and Blues (and some Pop and hip-hop), often combined with electrical instruments of modern pop (electric guitar, drum kits, keyboard, etc.).. a reminder of the “acoustic era” after all at the root of all music of today. Also in Jamaican early folk music (like Mento) gourds were used, after all, not just in Cuba. This is after all often a function of “percussion sets” in modern (popular/rock) genres, especially Afro-American ones: reminding of the roots and acoustical times.
More prominent in Latin styles like Salsa (Cuban-derived) and Merengue (from the Dominican Republic), but Jamaican Reggae uses the scraper (often of gourd) quite a lot in the mix (as does Salsa or Cuban Son) too, as well as some shakers made from calabash.
CONCLUSION
What I can conclude from this research and reflection is that the calabash or gourd, especially as used in subtropical and tropical areas of different continents, contributed strongly to folk music globally, mostly as “resonator” (read: amplifier) for other instruments, and specifically in Africa also as primary instrument (drum, percussion) as well. It proved in fact crucial in folk and traditional music historically, due to its tough and water-resistant characteristics as the fruit got domesticated in human history, alongside of course wood, or other natural materials (clay/earthenware, mud, straw, coconut, bamboo, from animals..).
