John F. Carrington

John F. Carrington (21 March 1914 – 24 December 1985) was an English missionary who spent large part of his life in the Belgian Congo. He became fluent in the Kele language and in the related talking drum form of communication, and wrote a book titled "The Talking Drums of Africa".

John Carrington arrived to the Belgian Congo in 1938. He was involved in teaching throughout his missionary career in Yakusu, a major school center run by the Baptist Missionary Society, where he worked between 1938 and 1950. He was struck by the fact that although there were no telephones, everyone know exactly when he would arrive at a village. He found that the local Kele people were communicating via drums. Each village had an expert drummer and everyone could understand drum language, which echoes the rhythms of the spoken Kele language. Carrington published The Talking Drums of Africa in 1949. By that time, the Kele drum language was falling out of use. Today, it has become extinct.

Carrington moved to Yalemba in 1951, where he found two drum languages corresponding to the Heso language of the Basoko people and the Topoke language of the Baonga villagers on the other side of the Congo. However, he found that out of 200 boys at the school only 20 could drum. Carrington said "The boys now say, 'We want to read and write,' and laugh at the drum".

In 1969 Carrington published his novel titled ″Talking Drums of African″ describing his time spent with the Lokele tribe in Africa. He stresses an individual obtain adequate background information on the spoken Bantu language before the drum language can be taught since the speaker must be fluent to sufficiently communicate. For a small novel Carrington is able to discuss various topics in regards to African drums and do so without complicated terminology; including drum translations, how drums were constructed and in which situation drums were played, giving adequate examples of each. Carrington has stressed that the drum language is a dying art and those closely associated with it should take pride in their native art but it seems as if few are willing to do so. Many questions are left unanswered though, rhythm is never discussed along with how a sentence is ended, which many critics believe is a key concept in understanding drum language.

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