Influence Of Axatse On African Culture

Culture is defined as a set of ideas, customs and social behavior of a particular people or a society. Every nation has its own specific culture, which exhibits one’s own traditions, beliefs and values. It is the totality of the thought and practice by which a people creates itself, celebrates, refrain and develop itself and introduces itself to history and humanity. The African culture is divided into greater number of ethnic cultures that include African arts and crafts, folklore and religion, clothing, music, languages and cuisine (Maultsby, 2000). Music has gained a unique value in African culture. They have long been using music techniques for different purposes, although with the passage of time there has evolved many changes in it

Mostly seeds are woven around Axatse as it is a Ewe cultural tradition. In Ewe culture, the people translate the seeds as “forget-me-not”. According to them, seeds are cast to determine that whether a person will forget the others or not, mostly in cases of love bonds. The seeds are nominating the girls.
The material to make Axatse is easily available; however its election is bit tough. Again very deep knowledge is required to produce a beautiful musical instrument. This shaker is an instrument of the Ewe people, who live in the Volta Region of Ghana and in neighboring Togo. It always accompanies traditional Ewe drumming ensembles. It is origin of Axatse (Martin, 1991).
Axatse is very closely connected to Gankogui and its sound remains the same in all traditional functions of West Africa. The role of this African rattle is to support and reinforce the bell, which provides the timeline for the whole ensemble. In Ewe traditions, more than five or four rattle players are sitting in line to produce a same rhythmic sound. When they strike their rattles with their thighs, then sounds of “pa” and “ti” are

They may call spirits in sacred ceremonies or emphasize the words and actions of important people. In more modern societies though, kids use them as toys and musicians as fun and roots percussion instruments (Gbolonyo, 2009). Kidi is a drum, which is about two feet tall and played with wooden sticks. Kidi responds to calls from the lead drummer. This is known as a dialogue. This concept is also commonly known as call and response. Kidi plays in unison with Sogo the master drum, when engaged in a dialogue. During a dialogue the people playing Sogo and Kidi will change their rhythms to interlock with those of Atsimevu, the lead drum. In a performance of Atsia the dancers will also reported to calls from the lead drummer by changing their dance movement. Kidi is basically an element of family of drums where Atsimevu is master drum, Kagan is baby drum and Kidi is mother drum. For this family, the musician use a term of “Talking Drums” as these drums are played in response of each other. Kidi is mother of this family and it responds the master drum. When all of these drums are played together, then African people translate this melody in following way (Agawu,