Northern Ghana
Dagomba

Wood, goat skin, cloth fiber, leather, string
Mid 20th Century
Length: 13 in; Diameter: 14.5 in
Membranophone – Struck (Directly) – Double-headed

A field collected gungon from the Dagomba people of northern Ghana. This medium sized cylindrical bass drum is used to accompany the lunga. It has a hollowed-out tree trunk for its shell.  Skins are attached to both ends of the open shell and a single snare (chahira) runs along the top portion of the skin on each side.  The drum is hung over the shoulder by means of a strap and it is struck with a curved drumstick held in the right hand.   The fingertips of the left hand are used to dampen the sound and create variations in sound.  The drum has fairly low pitches and plays repetitive ostinato figures. Its deep timbre gives an extra dimension to the music.  The lunga, gungon, and gungon bla (smaller) accompany dances such as the nagila and are also used to accompany both men’s and women’s songs.  Like the brekete drum it bears decorative elements and has a cloth wound around it.

This drum is called several different names by the various west African ethnic groups.  The word brekete was first the name of the brekete ceremony of a religious group in southern Ghana.  The use of this specific type drum in their ceremonies became the name of the drum referred to in Ghana.  Some of the names for the brekete drum in other regions and by other cultures are listed below:

Nigeria: djun djung
Mande: dundun
Dagomba: gungon, gungon bla