From Djembe to Rainforest

From Winneba Open Digital Village Wiki

[edit] a.Motivation：

Drum, which is originated from western Africa, is a representative African culture. However, Ghana, which is also located on the western Africa, now faces a severe impact from foreign culture. It is to be regretted if we miss such a traditional culture. To preserve it well, we make this documentary film. On the other hand, rainforest is also a very important ecology on earth. Unfortunately, people need to cut down the trees to make drums. For this reason, we also plan to make on the spot to see whether the drum makers cut down too much trees to damage the forest or not. We hope to warn the local people especially the drum makers the importance of the rainforest by this video.

[edit] b.Content：

Kobby leaded us to a drum village Okurase and introduced lots drums to us. (Kobby’s father is the first person who brings the technique of drum making to Okurase. But now his father is too old to make drums.) He showed us different kinds of drums, and explained the meanings and the basic rhythm. Also, he took us to the place where they making Djembe, one specific kind of drum, to understand the whole procedures of making a Djembe. After that, we have short interviews with Kobby, Kobby’s father and the drum makers focused on the problem of the passing down the drum making technique. Besides, we spent a whole morning to touring a nearby forest, looking for the trenebouh trees which is the best tree to make drums. Most importantly, to find out the deforestation.

[edit] c.Achievement：

Making an one-hour documentary film-From Djembe to Rainforest, and upload it to the youtube.

[edit] d.Future plans：

Finishing and spreading out the documentary film. Deeply understand the interconnection between the deforestation and the ecological problem : the original aim of this film is to connect the drums with the deforestation. But this time we did not meet a specialist of rainforest protection. Without enough information, we only asked some local people and drum makers about this problem. Maybe next year, the 2010 volunteers can follow our steps and have a completely understanding and try to solve it.