African Drums

 

Cowhides staked-out along the side of the road to Kampala in Uganda. The skins are used for covering small drums made for the tourist trade.

The demand for these drums is apparently very high, and all six of the preferred wood species for drum carving are overexploited and rapidly disappearing from local forests. My friend Tony Cunningham, who studies the drum trade in central Africa, recommends that buyers look for drums made from cultivated trees rather than wild species.