This is from a Dununba community African drum and West African dance party I sponsored when I was staying and studying with the late, great teacher and master choreorgapher and percussionist Kemoko Sano (aka Komoko Sano) at his compound in Mervielles, Conakry, Guinee, West Africa a few years ago. Kemoko Sano was choreographer with the national dance troupe Les Ballets Africains in Guinea Africa as well as many other groups in Africa and the USA. It features many African male and female dancers from his troupe and the local area as well as djembe fola or djembe drummers from Guinee who live there as well as some who have moved to the USA.
Some of the artists involved: Fode Seydou Bangoura, Fode Lavia Camara, Amara Mansare, Sekou Sano, Alseny Soumah, Yamoussa Soumah, Mamady Kourouma, Kikala Oulare, Naby Bangoura and other ballet african and current Les Mervielles artists.
Dununba (aka Dundunba) is not only the name of the traditional party or community celebration and rhythm compositions, it is also the name of the set of 3 drums played sideways that make the melody of the Guinee (aka Guinea) West African drum ensemble that is always played together with the djembe drum. It is also the name of the lowest and bass toned drum in the set of three “Dununs”. The Kinkini is the highest and the Sangban is the midrange.
In times past a Dununba ceremony was thrown or given as a way for members from the community or rival communities to work out their differences in a martial (physical) way, hence the Dununba being known as “the strong mans dance”.
It was originally only danced by the men. With this dance, the men settled a tough, and sometimes even violent and bloody, fight to determine superiority and differences they may have with each other in the village.
In the Dununba rhythms the kenkeni and the djembes always play the same pattern. The Dununba rhythms were originaly played slower then you hear them being played in my videos and in the city these days. When you go to Hamanah where the Dununba is from it is played much slower. Hamanah is the region of Guinee (Guinea), and that is where it continues to thrive today as well as in the cities where it is now used as a means of celebration and competition.