Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The paper observes and explores the connection between indigenous drums, the divinities, and the religion of the Yoruba people and their spiritual functions in the environment where they exist. Religion is a way of life for the African people. The structure of their religion identifies this in its fivefold classification which is a belief in God, in divinities, in spirit, in the ancestors and in the practice of magic and medicine. Within these classifications is the element of anthropomorphism which is keenly attached to the principle of animism. The communal rituals demonstrate the attention given to the supernatural potency of a particular tree in the area of spiritual understanding. Yoruba views about this give the impression that all useful trees are believed to harbor gods or spirits which are worshipped on some occasions. However, some of these trees are considered as best materials for drum making. Drums made from most of these trees are, therefore, associated with ritual functions because they believe that the drums bear spiritual potency of the gods or spirits inhabiting the trees from which they are made. Consequently, the drums serve as spiritual symbols in some ritual practices of the people. The paper explores the coalescence and the essence of the artistic and the spiritual in the drums. the paper recognizes the presentation of praise names or invocation through the drum lyrics as a measure of aesthetic reference of verbal art in the display of the Orisa connected with the indigenous drums among the Yoruba people.