How did the drum and its sacred melody come about? Patakí de Chango

Monkey He governs lightning, thunder, and fire, but he also owns drums and dance. And it is that both powers are intertwined in a fierce passion and intense joy of living.

He is a warrior orisha of sharp intelligence and wit, irascible temperament and is characterized as virility in all its sense. And so is the music the Orisha likes: masculine, energetic and possessive, passionate and eager for battle.

Chango is the god of dance and music and owner of the Batá drums, Wemiros, Ilú Batá or Bembés, as legend has it that it was he who first played a drum.

Pataki: Chango and the magic of the Drum

This patakí tells that one day they met Ogun the hunter of the mount and ochosi the vigilante, because they wanted to do something that would cheer them up and make everyone dance.

For this they needed something that would produce a pleasant, musical sound, to move their feet and reach the soul of each one, seeking joy and well-being.

So they decided to go see the wise man on the mountain, osain, for advice on how to make an instrument that would produce beautiful, joyful sounds.

Osain, knowledgeable about all the clubs in the bush, quickly knew which club would produce such an attractive sound that everyone would want to move to his rhythm.

He then told Ogún and Ochosi that they should cut a regular-sized cedar and then hollow it out.

They did so and when they finished hollowing out the tree, Ogún used goatskin to patch the instrument.

The first drum and the owner of lightning

This is how they made the first drum and happily, they both began to play it, but they couldn't get a pleasant sound out of it.

Shango, who was there, felt irremediably attracted by the sounds of that drum and thus he came to where they were gathered and asked to be allowed to play it.

The Orishas did not refuse and let the owner of thunder try his luck with the new instrument.

And Shango then played the instrument with such mastery that those present immediately began to dance and everyone who was in the vicinity came to the call of the drum music.

With so much joy and celebration, Ogún and Ochosi forgot that they had been the makers of the drum and from that day on, Shango never let go of the instrument again.