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Intro: Discovery in Africa

Mali: How They Are Made

Mali: Where Women are the Masters of Kashaka

 

 

Elsewhere in West Africa

Nii Tettey Tetteh

Natural vs. Plastic Kashakas

Which one is right for you?

 
 

 

Intro: Discovery In Africa

Rhythm Kingdom Inc. was founded in the Spring of 2001 with a dream: to make the world a funkier place to live. The dream was born in Mali, in West Africa, a few years before, when I discovered my first Kashaka. I had been doing anthropological research, living with a variety of cultures in remote villages, studying why development projects worked in some places and failed in others.

Mali is the third poorest country in the world, and for many children, a kashaka is their only toy. In Mali, Kashakas are called Kasso Kassoni, and they literally grow out of the ground.

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Mali: How They Are Made

Each ball of the Kasso Kassoni is a hollow gourd that grows like lemons on the swawa tree . When they dry and fall off the trees, the children collect them and fill them with orange pebbles from the iron rich soil of the Sahel.

   
© 2001 - 2012 Rhythm Kingdom Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 

 

They tie the balls together with a small string (sometimes made from old rags braided together), attaching them in one of two ways.

One way is to tie each end of the rope to a small stick, which is turned sideways, inserted into each ball and then fastened to each gourd with a ball of beeswax. Another way is to pass the rope through each ball and knot each end on the outside, like the Kashaka.

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Mali: Where Women are the Masters of Kashaka

In Mali, only women and girls play with the Kasso Kassoni. Sometimes it's for work, and sometimes for play. Everyone in Mali has to help out - as soon as girls are old enough to babysit, they will lean how to play Kasso Kassoni to entertain their younger siblings. When they get older, and a little better at playing, they get together with their teenage friends and have some fun: they surround a tree and sing folk songs, rhythmically bouncing their Kasso Kassonis off the trunk at the same time.

The men and boys in Mali think Kasso Kassonis belong to the realm of women's things. Even the great Malian drummers don't use them.

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Elsewhere in West Africa

In other parts of West Africa, like in Togo, Benin and Ghana, male drummers have been using Kasso Kassoni (or Kashaka) for generations. They were probably introduced to Ghana by their legendary fishermen, who have traveled far up and down the Gold Coast, trading and sharing cultural traditions and rhythms (so far, we have discovered more than 40 names for Kashaka - click here to see the list).

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Nii Tettey Tetteh

Nii Tettey Tetteh is an internationally acclaimed musician, educator and composer from Southern Ghana, and his father was a fisherman. His family is the hereditary keeper of his village's royal drums. He has kept up this family tradition all of his life by struggling to maintain and nurture the traditional instruments, music and rhythms of West Africa. He teaches and performs all over the world, and wherever he goes, he brings his Kashakas.

He is from the Ga people, and in his language, a Kashaka is called "Aslatua", which means "snuff container". About 100 years ago, adults used the small gourds to hold their snuff, a form of tobacco used for sniffing. Young people who weren't interested in tobacco used the gourds for a better purpose, by putting stones in them instead and tying them together with string. Today, many Ghaneans enjoy using Aslatua to make basic rhythms.

Nii Tettey Tetteh has not only mastered how to play 2 Aslatuas (and now 2 Kashakas) at once, he plays different rhythms in each hand, creating beautiful and complex polyrhythms. He demonstrates them to students and audiences wherever he travels, and has inspired hundreds of people to lean to play Kashakas.

Now, through the internet and an instructional video created with Rhythm Kingdom, Nii Tettey Tetteh will be able to reach thousands of new people like you and show you the fun you can have playing Kashakas.

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Natural Vs. Plastic Kashakas

Natural Kashakas are made of a gourd that comes from the Swawa tree, which only grows in West Africa. They have a soft sound and no two pair are exactly alike in size or tone. They sound great, but they don't last forever, especially in our famous Canadian winters.

 

   
 
For that reason, we manufacture high-quality Plastic Kashakas here in Canada, using high-impact polystyrene and industrial super-bonders made with  

rubberized particles to withstand impact. They have a bright sound that can be heard when playing in a band or with other drummers or percussionists.

Plastic Kashakas are also adjustable to fit any sized hand - from age 5 and up for boys/men, and about 7 and up for girls/women.

We also import the best Natural Kashakas in the world, direct from Nii Tettey Tetteh in Ghana. They are very well-made and come with a waxed finish, which help them last longer. They are all different sizes, so it is important to determine which size you need before you buy. To determine which size is best for your hand, click here to view the hand chart. It's an Acrobat (.pdf) file, so you will need Acrobat Reader to view it.

For best results, print the hand chart (in color or black & white if you like) and measure the size of your hand.

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Which one is right for you?

In general, Plastic Kashakas are stronger and last longer than Natural Kashakas. As natural Kashakas are made of a gourd, they will eventually crack, depending on how much they are played, and how much they dry out. Keep that in mind when deciding which Kashaka are right for you.

Can't decide? - I enjoy playing a Natural and a Plastic Kashaka at the same time: each one has a unique shake, and a unique click, which sound better when played together.

I hope you are as inspired by Tettey as I have been, and are inspired by what you can do with a Kashaka in each hand. To see slow-motion video clips of one and two-handed Kashaka moves, click here.

If you would like to learn more about Tettey, his music and his drum school in Ghana, please check out his website:

http://www.ghanadrumschool.com

And thanks for helping to make the world a funkier place to live!

 

Sincerely,

Rufus Glassco,

Director

Rhythm Kingdom Inc.

info@kashaka.com

 

Selling Kashakas with Orion Drums at the Mariposa

Folk Festival (July'02) (Photo: Courtesy of Nancy Lais)

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"Making the world a little
funkier every day."