Music of resistance: The Tobago tambrin

Dr Rita Pemberton

HAVING gained possession of Tobago in 1763 following a series of conflicts between the various European claimants, the primary aim of the British government was the establishment of sugar cane cultivation on the island.

This led to a hasty attempt to subdivide and sell land to establish sugar plantations, a policy which was prompted by the dual aim of staving off French advances on the island and the desire to benefit from the lucrative market for sugar in Europe.

The need for labour led to the importation of captive Africans to the newly established estates, which initiated African enslavement on the island. Following the pattern established by the slavers in Barbados, those in Tobago, some of whom were also plantation owners in Barbados, applied the strict slave code which was created in Barbados.

These laws were based on the principle that the Africans were chattel, the property of their purchasers who had the right to exert full control over them and treat them as they pleased.

The Barbadian Slave Code was in fact based on the fears of the slavers that they would not be able to control their property unless they applied rigid restrictions and inflicted brutal punishment for transgressions by their enslaved property.

The other consideration was their need to institute measures to secure their investment in purchases of Africans and estates, and to secure the desired profits from the enterprise.

One of the areas that was specially targeted in the Barbadian code was in the realm of culture. Despite the harsh laws of the land which underscored their inferiority, the natural instincts of the enslaved Africans were to have recourse to their innate cultural practices as indices of their identity, strategies for survival, expressions of their religious beliefs, connections with their ancestors, and mechanisms of resistance.

A central feature of life in their homeland was communication across the vast continent, which was an integral part of life in African communities. The experience of the Barbadian slavers caused them to put specific emphasis on the most commonly used method of communication, the drum, one of the most revered cultural items, which one writer described as “the lifeblood “of the African.

Although the slavers objected to the noise and what they considered primitive pagan tendencies of drumming, the fact was that they did not understand the encoded messages which were communicated by drumming, but there were both an awareness that there was deeper meaning to the activity and fear that it could be used against the enslavers themselves and their ability to maintain the institution of slavery.

Drumming was associated with plots and revolts and enslavers recognised that drums spoke a language that they did not understand. Their solution to this dilemma was to impose a legal ban on the drum with severe punishment for the offenders, which was in force since the 18th century.

But for the creators and users, it was a battle with the authorities who felt a particular urgency to deal with drumming from the mid-18th-mid-19th century, when Emancipation occurred.

There were resistance movements which rocked the fledgling sugar industry in Tobago during the 1770s, which made the slavers particularly concerned about drumming and its impact and made them increasingly hostile to drummers and drumming.

In addition, the persistent French threat to the island made the British authorities concerned that any uprising of the enslaved would provide an invitation to French activity in Tobago.

Secondly, the British/French hostility provided the opportunities for French and other pirates and privateers around the coasts, which raised security concerns.

The anti-drum thrust was increased with the termination of the British slave trade and the movement for emancipation. During to period between these two events, slavers were anxious to crush any resistance movement which they believed to be centred around the drums and drumming.

However, the need of the enslaved Africans for communication with their fellows in other parts of the island, for spiritual release and entertainment was so great that they were willing to utilise whatever material was available, be it hollowed tree trunks or unused articles, to create their drums.

In addition to the system of enslavement itself, the ban and related punishment stimulated the African creative pulse, resulting in the creation of various types of drums in the Caribbean.

The response to the ban was the development of a resistance movement to find ways of circumventing the law, which led to the creation of the Tobago tambrin drum. With brave determination, the enslaved Africans sought to protect their creation from destruction by the slavers by hiding the drums in their crude mattresses or in secret places in or around the plantations.

The Tobago tambrin takes its name from a creolisation of the word tambourine, the instrument which was used by missionaries who served on the island to Christianise the “savages,” to accompany their songs.

The making/tuning of the drum is an art which involves a meticulous process and use of the right animal skin to produce the desired sound. So too is playing the drum, which is a skill that requires knowledge of the processes of making and tuning the instrument, constant practice and, in addition, the ability to prepare the goat skin by heating it to the right temperature, before starting to play.

The drums were made from discarded kegs and barrels used for shipping rum and molasses and were headed by goat or other animal skin. When cheese was imported into the island, initially cheese boxes were used to make the rims for the kegs but were replaced by the wild cassava, a vine which grows in the forest, and which held the skin in place.

Kegs were stolen from the estate and hidden, and the drums were made in secret, but their existence was revealed when they were put into use. Then the authorities would confiscate and destroy the drums and the skins of slaughtered animals to deprive the Africans from access to them.

The premises on which drum making was known or suspected to be conducted were frequently inspected. But as drums were destroyed and individuals punished, the Africans found more creative ways to give expression to their inner desires and oppose the restrictive laws and practices.

They created drum orchestras made up of three drums – the bass or boom drum with a deep low-toned bass, the fuller or roller which carried the tune, and the high-toned cutter. The fiddle or violin and the steel triangle completed the ensemble. The Tambrin Band provided the music for entertainment, ceremonies, dance and spiritual rituals in Tobago.

From its 18th century beginnings, the beating of the tambrin, though shrouded in fear and secrecy, was a consistent effort of the Africans to hold on to aspects of their identity through their music of resistance, which flowered after Emancipation when the African population was freed of the fear of punishment for asserting this aspect of their cultural expression.