Georgian College’s Orillia campus was filled with joyous West African rhythms on Thursday afternoon as Babarinde Williams taught local students to play the djembe drum.
Dozens of students showed up for the Orillia Culture Days event, organized by the Orillia & District Arts Council (ODAC), as Williams taught students how to make slap and bass noises, as well as play along to the rhythms of spoken word and contemporary music.
Williams said the djembe drum is unique to West Africa, noting there are specific drums and styles for all four corners of the continent.
“This is purely West Africa, and the … djembe drum, that is made in West Africa,” he told OrilliaMatters. “Most of the African countries along the coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gambia … they own the djembe drum, so we basically adopted this drum as a West African drum and it's played all through West Africa.”
Williams has played the djembe drums, among other instruments, since he was three years old, and he is the founder of Durham-based Drums et al, an organization that teaches various communities – regardless of background – about “the power of drumming” through interactive learning sessions.
After learning the basics, students played along to the phonetic rhythm of sentences, and then with music, as Williams taught about the history of the drum and how, ultimately, it became an instrument used in music across the world.
“For 12 centuries, the djembe drum remained an African drum … until the Soviets came in the 70s,” he told the crowd of students.
From there, the drums were incorporated into a variety of events abroad in Europe, where they quickly gained popularity, Williams explained.
“Today, the djembe drum is played in every country of the world, in every city, and it’s played in all manners and styles of music,” he said.
Beyond the drum sessions hosted by Williams, Georgian College brought a variety of multicultural activities to campus to celebrate Culture Days.
“Georgian College is deeply committed to honouring and respecting the diversity of our college. We're so glad all of you could come out,” said Mary Louise Noce, Orillia campus dean of human services and community safety.
Students had the chance to take part in Sikh turban tying, henna tattoos, multicultural painting, and much more before and during Williams’ djembe drum lesson.
Laura LaChapelle, from Making Change, organized a table for students to paint a tile relating to their cultural backgrounds as part of a broader project meant to spark discussion on diversity and inclusion in Simcoe County.
“With the tile project, we're all talking about our cultural backgrounds. We're all sharing our lived experiences and our stories. We want to collect 500 tiles from across Simcoe County," said LaChapelle.
“It's been really interesting. It's also been a great project for team building: people will come together, sit down, and then we just start talking," she explained.
ODAC board member, Dennis Rizzo, said Williams’ drum circle will likely be part of local Culture Days events moving forward.
“Georgian College brings a lot of their individual students together for a celebration of different cultures, and that's sort of in combination with the Culture Days concept in Ontario,” he said.
“We provided (Williams’ drum circle) last year, and it looks like it's going to be an annual thing that we'll bring to this particular event.”
