SYNCOPATION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 20

SYNCOPATION

THE "BONGO" PLAYED IN . CUBA. ■ . ■ . "A part of the liaiV-against'1 the- use of the "Bbhgo'':or -tiro". African tomtom, has, been lifted ' -by the Cuban Govern men t. in "deference' to the wishes of those fond.' ' pf:**syheof>ated 'music, says the "New iork/'Tinics.'".'' The "bongo," however, must' always lje played in company with other instruments, 'and never alone, as it is believed that its throbbings wake,the inherent savagery in the, hearts of 'fetish worshippers. . . . : 'Despite laws :to""tlio' -contrary; - the "Bongo", has trumped, out ...its wes1 * ■sages ou'inoohlight nights in the eauofields ever ■ since ■ Cliba became- a' republic. Sharp eyes report the passage of the rural'jpatrols, and when these khaki-clad representatives of the law are out of.hearing the'"bongo" players got to work/ ■ Usually the "bongo" is three feet in length and conical" in shape. The head 1s : a foot in" diameter, and is covered with' pigskin:,. The'• musician places the instrument ■between, his knees, thumping with his hands on its; head and raising the "bongo" with his feet at cadonced intervals. , The Haitians who come each year to harvest Cuba's sugar crop are said to be the most expert of all tom-tom players. Many of them arc steeped in the lore of voodooism and in a state-of oxaltation they will, pat the "bongo" with supple lingers, for hours ivithout a pause. One favourite dance set to tom-tom music is that of (lie Jacobs' Ladder, in which the- participants go though the motions of . climbing, to Heaveju Efforts to' stamp out voodooisin in Haiti, have" not been so successful that rumours do not. recur of the scijict. practice of savage rites. ' I