Bata Drummers

Courtesy of Awoyinfa Ifaloju

This is a short clip of some young Bata drummers, children from a long long lineage of Ayan drummers from the area to the north of Oyo town & Ogbomoso towns, which is the traditional and cultural heart of the Yoruba of Nigeria. Bata is also worshipped like any other Deity of the Yoruba people, and can speak like a human, people accustomed to the traditional Yoruba language can decipher the words that the Oni-Ilu (person drumming) is saying and will often sing along to the words of the drum, Bata is also closely related to the Orisa Sango and to Egungun society.

The highly developed artistic forms of the Yoruba people has many things to showcase to the world. These drummers are around 6-8 years of age and have been drumming several years under their mentor.