Old Drums Beat a Path from History to Erykah Badu

With a curved stick in one hand, a five-year-old Nigerian pre-schooler staggers as she tries to steady what's been slung from her shoulder: a drum and many generations of history.

"The children need to carry on our culture, our tradition, and you need to catch them young," Aralola Olamuyiwa, popularly known as Ara, said after giving an hour-long lesson at a Lagos nursery and primary school on the talking drum.

The West African talking drum, an hour-glass-shaped instrument usually made of wood and animal hide, is deeply embedded in the region's culture, having served as a means of communication long before phones, not to mention email..more