Drum from Ghana
- Audio guide stop: 152
- Gallery: Room 26
- Made in: Ghana
- Date: 18thC
- Object type: drum
- Materials: camwood (Baphia nitida); deer skin (?); antelope skin (?); african cordia; fibre (Clappertonia ficifolia and Raphia)
- Museum number: Am,SLMisc.1368
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is a drum from Ghana, known as an apentemma. This goblet-shaped drum features a wooden main body, likely made from Cordia africana, and a deer or antelope skin drumhead. Around the top are six carved wood pegs, and below these is a decorative section carved with vertical lines and notches that divide the surface into distinct areas with rectangels and square patterns.
The drum is played with open hands, a common technique in West African drumming traditions like fontomfrom or Adowa. A handwritten inscription, “A Drum from Virginia,” appears on its surface, referencing where it was acquired by British collector Sir Hans Sloane in the early 18th century. The materials and craftsmanship suggest it was made by the Akan people—an enduring object that continues to tell stories of cultural exchange and history.
See it in person
Drum from Ghana is on display in Room 26 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 152, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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