Bougarabou

A bougarabou (alternative spelling “Boucarabou”) is a set of drums commonly used in West Africa. The drums are single headed (cow skin), with an elongated goblet or roughly conical shape, usually placed on a single stand, and most commonly played in sets of three to four.

Until the last few decades the Bougarabou was played only one at a time, usually with one hand and a stick, but in the last generation or two (since the 1940s), possibly influenced from congueros in the western hemisphere, players play multiple drum setups. The drum is originally from the Jola (Jóola) people in the south of Senegal, the Casamance and the Gambia, the Jóola Buluf, the Jóola Fogny and the Jóola Kalunai.