Batá Drums
Iyá, Itótele,
Okónkolo -- those are the names of the three
batá drums. The drums have invoked the Gods
of Africa for centuries in the in Houses of Saints (Casas de Santeros); the drums
speak to the Orisha. The dual-headed wooden drums,
with their two skins stretched and tuned with leather straps from the lowest to
the highest pitch, were surrendered to the expert hands of the master drummers,
the olubatá.