Dances and music include Dugu, Zungo and Gobibi. Dugu is part of an elaborate funeral rite culture based on circle dances, drum and ancestor worship through ritual. It is a form of sacred cultural expression. In the dancing the congregation or villagers form behind the priest or buiai who is brought in to communicate with the ancestral spirits. Everybody moves in a circular counter or anti clockwise direction in front of the drummers. The group will then halt or stop at positions to mark four cardinal points which signify the directions from which power is drawn and in which spirits may reside. Often some dancers enter a trance signifying that the ancestors have arrived. Talking drums played to bring people together for announcements, celebrations and funerals. Most are carved from hardwoods into carefully tuned resonators. Each Friday in the Chief s Palace the drums played to announce the day of the week. Early form of long distance human non verbal communication. Animal skins or hides are stretched over the end of the log under tension. In slave trade the talking drums were banned in West Africa to stop slaves communicating over long distances in a code unknown to the traders and masters. In c20 drums became a part of popular music in West Africa, especially in the music genre of juju
