It is written in the book of life, that the first beat was the booming voice of God commanding the abyss to let there be light. Some say the first beat was a cosmic bang that sent 400 billion galaxies screaming through space to form the universe. In either case, in the beginning, there was a beat. The cosmos took a blow and gave a boom. The drum and its beat are a good place to start.
The drum calls to order, urges unity and compels dance. It has always been so. Our first drum was felt before it was heard. It was a pulsating percussion pumping liquid life to the first conscious human brains. It was an ever present pounding, thumping tempo for our march of life. It was a heart-drum, chanting an internal, percussive, rhythmic, motive for music. It was and is the pulse of our culture, the pace of our thought and the pounding cadence of our march to redemption.
But this is no longer enough. Now our drum must be more, do more and compel more than dance. Now it must speak truth and tell ancient secrets. It must beat a living drum-osophy, which expresses the values, principles and ethics of a scattered and suffering people. Our drum must be a mindset that comes to synchronize with our pumping hearts and touch our troubled spirits.
“I hear the thumping, as we look within, feeling the rhythm, resisting against the system.”
Robert Nesta Marley
The drum sounds philosophical beats that engage us all and compel us to strive for a better life. These are mystic licks calling for unity, in a global march for dignity, liberty and peace. Booming beats beckon us to free our minds and take a road, full of obstacles, ambushes and dead ends. It calls us to a sojourn of conscience, one that can only be successfully traversed by those aligned to the people and their collective interests. It calls us to journey to redemption. A journey that must, of necessity, reshape our soul and resurrect our twisted minds.
The drum calls us to become new in the daily march to dignity, self respect and truth. It calls us to move and reclaim our place in the world. It sets the pace. Our liberation awaits the transformation of our thinking souls.
Some fear this drum. When they hear the vibrating tones compelling action they choose to ignore them. They sit still and mute, knowing that only song and dance can save us. So, while frightened fingers fill ear-holes, ear-drums, hear-drums pumping blood through weakened hearts and trembling minds. They are afraid of it’s song that thumps the sound track to our poverty, ignorance and political powerlessness. They fear the incessant drum-tones telling how the down-pressing twisted our mentalities and put us at risk of loosing our souls. They shudder as the unrelenting throbbing tells Our story of exploitation, oppression and global death.
They cringe as drum-tones tell tales of slipping spirits, locked in wretchedness by the inability to think as one. Drum songs sing of minds enslaved and thinking corrupted. The beats say that our essence has been distorted and our personality co-opted by centuries of slavery, colonialism, racism, rape, murder and betrayal. They tell how our identity became clouded by confusion, false information and indifference. These are the songs of global ethical decline, degradation of the soul and the creeping surrender to the domination of our lives.
Finally the drums tell how our values are replaced by those of our tormentors and how we start to dance to another beat. Such a tale induces many to stop listening. They are afraid.
Still the distant drum beat, surrounds, embraces and compels as it pounds the past into the present in preparation for the future. And in the darkness of despair, sensitive drum sounds come to sooth the brutalized conscience lurking beneath our global indignity. Staccato percussions sing of liberty, dignity, spiritual repair and resistance. The Drum beats to defeat mental slavery by propagating a new philosophy.
This new drumosophy, is a body of connected ideas, and a network of principles meant to guide our thoughts and actions. It is a Spirit-drum sounding sharp licks, pounding a pulsating point to prick the conscience of African people.
The drum beats for all Africans though some cannot (or will not) hear it. The enemies of the people hear it and would like to silence it. The masses of the people always hear it, feel it and know it. This is the drum of liberty that never stops thumping. Its seemingly insignificant pulse can be heard in every suffering African heartbeat. Just listen for the call.
Listen to the drum.
Not digital beats synthesized,
to play behind self-destructive lines,
that happen to rhyme.
Listen for the drum
Not singers selling souls to high bidders,
As itchy fingers squeeze musical triggers,
meant to mentally murder more niggers!
Listen for the drum
that breaks slave chains.
Not digital beats
meant to maim & tame!
Not global lies or video games,
attaching chains
to our living brains.
Listen, listen, freedom come.
Pounding, Pumping, Punching Drum
Mental bondage drummed undone;
One billion hearts beat as one
Drumming the redemption song,
For troubled souls greatly wronged.
People of the sun,
“Listen for the drum! Your time will come!”
People of the sun,
“Listen to the drum! Your time has come!”