It is strange how people from the first worlds want to learn african beats and stuff, and yet there is not even one "african" represented on this forum. Not even me, and I am a true "south african". I have obviously alot of african influences, but not to the extend where I can be of any help to a professional drummer. Maybe one day when I learn to play drums properly
I know there quite a few "representatives" for Africa here in the USA. One such individual would be the late Babatunde Olatunji, whom I was fortunate to study with a bit. Babatunde really pioneered the whole African educational thing here in the USA.
Much of the African tradition is taught by
hands on ... no pun intended. Afro-Cuban and North/South Indian drumming styles were the same way, but are now fairly well documented. In my opinion, the African drumming traditions are behind these others, perhaps as much as ten years. With the Internet, DVD, etc., I see the African tradition very quickly being fully exploited, just like Afro-Cuban and Indian styles.
It is interesting, however, that most of the text book teachings on all of these ethnic styles tend to be written by caucasians. It may be due to the economic/education variable ... who knows.
Anyway ... I do hope that our community expands to include all ethnic groups ... and to have a educational representation from each culture present.
