Issue of paternal exclusion in Yoruba Dùndún ensemble

Abstract

Dùndún ensemble is an indispensable musico-cultural iconography of the Yoruba community. It is a hallmark instrumental identity of the Yoruba people. Dùndún ensemble, which comprised five members drum, delineates a nuclear family representation of Ìyá-Ìlù (mother drum), Omele-akọ (male child), Omele-abo (female child), Keríkerì and Gúdúgúdú. Surprisingly, Baba-ìlù (father drum) is not included. Why is Baba-ìlù (father drum) not included in the Dùndún ensemble? If included, why not given prominence as the head? This salient issue of paternal exclusion in the nuclear family representation of Dùndún ensemble is what this study examines. This is with a view to understanding the culture and aesthetic sensibility of the Yorùbá Dùndún ensemble. The study hinged on Family System Theory of Bowen (1960), as used by Watson (2012). This study employs descriptive research design. Using ethnographic technique of data collection, the researchers engaged fifteen (15) purposively selected experienced ‘Àyàn’ from the Southwest Nigeria. Books, journal articles and the Internet being the secondary source were also consulted. Amazingly, two submissions from two different groups of Àyàn emerged from the findings. The first group of respondents attests to paternal exclusion from the ensemble based on the aesthetic sensibility of the Dùndún ensemble, while the second group reveals that Gúdúgúdú (a two-tone drum) is the father of all the drums. The latter’s opinion still leaves one in a state of bewilderment of why fatherhood would be represented by a small drum like Gúdúgúdú. While the representation is questionable, the study concludes that the exclusion of paternal in Dùndún ensemble does not abrogate its representation. The study, therefore, recommends that the role of a father as venerated by Yoruba culture, which in this context is the Baba-ìlù (father drum) should not be directly or indirectly undermined under any circumstance in Dùndún ensemble, so that the fatherhood role would not be misconstrued but rather entrenched in the minds of the younger generation.