Most musical instruments today, and indeed, throughout history, have been a kind of luxury. Used for entertainment or perhaps in certain religious ceremonies, they have nevertheless been something that humans could, if necessary, do without. Of course, there are those who claim they would die without music, and I would be among the first to expound upon the importance of music to the human spirit and psyche. Still, music is, in its simplest definition, an extravagance, something created for pure enjoyment. Yet there is at least one musical instrument that has historically been used for another purpose. The drum, with its resounding notes and relative ease of use, has been used as a means of long-distance communication for thousands of years.
There is evidence that many different ancient cultures used drums to communicate over long distances. These cultures often existed in forested or isolated areas, which made the use of aural communication a logical solution. The people of ancient Sri Lanka, for example, were using drums to communicate between the state and the community 2500 years ago. Various Native American tribes used both pressure and slit drums to send messages between individual camps. Even Europe had its own drum for communication, the “Txalaparta,” which was used in a part of Spain called the Basque Country. But the most famous of all drums used for communication are the talking drums of West Africa.
The West African talking drum has its roots in the ancient Ghana Empire, which existed from approximately 750-1076 CE and was located in modern southeastern Mauritania, western Mali and eastern Senegal. This instrument is a pressure drum with an hourglass shape and drum heads on both ends. The body is wood and the heads are made from hide, fish skin or other membranes. Leather cords run the length of the drum’s body and are wrapped around the hoops framing both heads. These cords are the key to the talking drum, as they are the source of its pitch modulation. When the drummer tightens his arm around the drum, thereby squeezing the cords, the heads tighten and the instrument’s pitch is altered. It was this characteristic that allowed the ancient tribes of Africa to send such complex messages over long distances.
When the Europeans first began to explore the jungles of Africa, they were continually surprised to find that the tribes had been forewarned of their presence. Due to the Atlantic slave trade that flourished between the 16th and 19th centuries, talking drums made their way to the Americas. They were, not surprisingly, banned for a time when slave owners realized that the slaves were using the instruments to communicate between plantations. This ban, fortunately, has gone the way of the Atlantic slave trade, and today talking drums are valued both for the ancient civilizations they represent and their unique musical capabilities.
In modern Africa, the talking drum is very popular in various kinds of music. It is used in both Mbalax, the national popular dance music of Senegal and Gambia, and Fuji, a popular musical genre in Nigeria, as well as other kinds of music in other countries.
For all the world travelers out there, and I count myself among you; traveling is my second delight after the casino experience.
I revel in the sounds and sites of new cultures, new vistas, new experiences, and now so many casinos. Double bonus! Let’s explore.
This casino travelogue highlights some of the most elegant and finest casinos in Africa, Australia and New Zealand. After all, we do deserve the best, mais oui, but of course.
There are almost 3000 gaming locations outside the US and Canada to include casinos, racinos, horse/dog tracks and cruise ships.
A brief explanation of the legend for this article follows:
I list the total number of gaming locations for the region/continent, then countries in each region/continent that has a gaming location and in order of number of gaming locations with the highest first.
For example, the Oceania area to include Australia and New Zealand boasts 480 casinos with Australia at the top of the list.
HC=Hotel-Casino. (SF)=Size in Square Feet. D=Dress Code-Jacket Required. E=Entrance Fee Required.
Games=G B=Baccarat. BJ=Blackjack. C=Craps. P=Poker. R=Roulette. CSP=Caribbean Stud Poker. S=Slots (Includes VP).
Africa (175)
South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Cameroon, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Zambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Uganda. We visit casinos at the bottom, top and middle of this continent.
South Africa:
1) Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World, 1 Battery Beach Road, Durban, Kwazulu-Natal 4359, South Africa. HC, D, SF=75,000. Web: www.suncoastcasino.co.za. G=S, BJ, C, R. Punto Banco. Located 32 miles west of Pretoria, this complex is the largest in South Africa with a long list of amenities including an entertainment center, golf course, tennis ranch, and wildlife preserve. Lost City rooms offer a dreamlike, mythical African setting.
Egypt:
2) Inter Casino – Ramses Hilton Hotel, 1115 Comiche El Nile Street, Cairo, Al Quahirah Egypt. HC. Web: www.cairo-ramses.hilton.com. G=S, BJ, R. Punto Banco.
3) Casino Semiramis – Inter-Continental Hotel, Hotel Semiramis Inter-Continental Corniche El Nile, Garden City Cairo, Al Quahirah 11511 Egypt. HC.
Web: www.casinosaustria.com/cai_cas_casinos.aspx . G=S, BJ, R. Punto Banco.
4) Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Khayyam Casino, Saraya El Gezira St.Zamalek Cairo, Al Quahirah Egypt. HC.
Web: marriott.com/CAIEG. G=S, BJ, R. Punto Banco.
The word is that Omar Sharif can be found expertly playing cards at one of these palatial casinos.
Kenya:
5) Casino de Paradise at the Safari Park Hotel & Country Club, Thika Road, Nairobi, Municipality Kenya. HN, HC, D, E, SF=15,000. G=S, B, BJ, R. Chemin de Fer, Pontoon.
Oceania (480)
Australia, New Zealand, Reunion, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Northern Mariana Islands.
Australia
Over 400 casinos/sporting clubs and race courses are located here. These three Australian Casinos below offer the full compliment of games, and some that are Australian Specialties like Two Up, Manila Poker, and French Boule. There are no entrance fees, and all are open 24 hours.
1) Star City, 80 Pyrmont Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2009 Australia. Web: www.starcity.com.au. HC, SF=104,000. G=S, B, BJ, C, P, R. Sic Bo.
2) Crown Entertainment Complex, 8 Whiteman Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3006 Australia. Web: www.crowncasino.com.au. HC, SF=221,000. G=S, B, BJ, C, CSP, P, R. Sic Bo and Pai Gow Poker. There are 28 restaurants for your dining pleasure.
These are two of the top ten casinos in the world, a must-see for visitors to the land of OZ.
I have visited both these casinos and enjoyed the fun, took in the history and was thrilled by sights and sounds of the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
My only complaint, as a video poker player is that the machines I love to play are not available in Australia. However, there are lots o’ slots–multi-lines, animated graphics and the arcade sounds.
3) Burswood Entertainment Complex, Great Eastern Highway Burswood, Western Australia 6100 Australia. HC, SF=75,000. Web: www.burswood.au. G=S, B, BJ, C, CSP, P, R. Keno and Pai Gow Poker. Located on the Swan River near Perth with impressive views and a pyramid-shaped hotel.
New Zealand
4) SkyCity Auckland, Corner of Federal Street and Victoria Street, Auckland, North Island 1001 New Zealand. T=+64 9 363-6000. HC, SF=71,000. Web: www.skycity.co.nz. G=S, B, BJ, CSP, P, R. Pai Gow Poker, Bingo and Tai Sai. There are Sky City casinos in Hamilton and Queenston, NZ.
With this travelogue, you can add casinos as a fun stop for your next vacation adventure.
Dear Presidents/Prime Ministers,
On behalf of the poor people of Africa, I send you this protest letter.
We are angry. Yes we the people are very angry. We have endured your ill conceived, harsh and austere economic and social policies for quite too long. We have watched silently to see you and your cronies enjoy while we the masses continue to suffer. We have no jobs, no income, no savings and have no place to lay our heads while you and your selected few live in mansions at the expense of the very poor you are refusing to take care of. You have consistently ignored all our cry for help even though you know our plights very well.
Are you not appalled by the scale of poverty and the living conditions of the people? Are you not appalled to see children selling on the street instead of being in the classroom? Are you not appalled to see children sleeping rough on the streets of our capital cities and scavenging for food while you and you cronies frequent between five star hotels? Don’t you care about the dignity of the people you claim to be serving?
For years you have asked us to sacrifice and even today we are still sacrificing, but anytime we look at you and your circle of friends we see that you are in a different suit, in a different four wheel drive, in a different hotel, and in a company of ladies, surrounded by bodyguards. How many more years should we continue to sacrifice and tighten our belts why you and your cronies enjoy from our sweat? We cannot continue any longer. No we cannot.
We are tired of all of you who call yourself leaders of the people. We are tired of the dictatorships, media censorship, torture, force imprisonment, wars and the political instabilities. We are tired of being refugees. We are tired of seeing our children die of preventable diseases. We are tired of sharing water from the same source with animals; water infested with bacteria and viruses. We are tired of lack of access to education, health, energy, food, medicines, shelter and clothing. We are tired of having to work with cutlasses and hoes in this 21st century. We are tired of having to rely on nature to plant our crops. We are tired of having to plant without fertilizers. We are tired of having to use 18th century seeds that yield next to nothing. We are tired of having to endure poverty, starvation, diseases, humiliation, torture, oppression, in your very hands.
Above all, we are tired of your excesses. We are tired of your corrupt practices and the looting of the treasuries. Your foreign bank accounts are swollen with hundreds of millions of dollars, pounds and Euros while hundreds of millions of people live on one dollar a day.
Despite the abundance of natural resources, poverty is sending many of your people into their graves at an early age and you are not bothered. The economic, social and political chaos and the failures written everywhere in the continent are the fruits of your poor and ineffective leadership.
When you meet to pick leaders from among yourselves who do you select? Is it not lifelong dictators, tyrants and kleptocrats with no credibility and what does that say about your judgement too?
We are tired of you using our money to procure arms for your own protection while children go to school barefooted and on empty stomach; while hospitals are without essential medicines; while factories are folding up for lack of electricity; and while harvested crops remain in the bush for lack of good roads.
In spite of the widely existence of technologies that you can adopt to tend the huge natural resources into material wealth to benefit us, you have rather opted for arms and military machines to kill and oppress us.
We are tired of your dithering. Even nations with little or no sunshine have access to solar energy and you what have you done with the abundance of sunshine found everywhere in the continent? We are tired of all your inactions, the wait and see and the do nothing approaches to problem solving.
There are many of you that we have not chosen or asked to lead us yet are carrying themselves as our leaders. Such people we demand should retire and allow elections to take place immediately. We demand an end to torture in Egypt and starvation in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe. We demand an end to the dictatorial rule in Libya, Egypt, Cameroon, Gabon, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda and the Gambia. We demand an end to the instabilities in DR. Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Northern Uganda, Chad and Madagascar. We demand an end to the genocide in Darfur and the killing of innocent children, women and civilians.
We demand an end to the official corruption and graft in Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Angola, DR. Congo, Chad, South Africa, Kenya and Guinea. We demand an end to the eroding of democratic values in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon. We demand an end to the injection of tribalism in our politics. We demand an end to the use of the continent as a hub for cocaine shipment to Europe. We demand better public services now. We demand better education, health, transport and telecommunication infrastructures now. We demand affordable housing now.
We demand irrigation facilities, tractors, equipment and improved seeds for our farmers now. You’ve asked us to tighten our belts while you have loosened yours. This cannot go on any more. We are starving to death while you are developing protruding bellies. You are having lavish birthday parties while cholera and starvation is threatening us. Your greediness and insensitivity are forcing the best of your people to seek greener pastures abroad.
We demand a share in the revenue from the sale of oil, gas, gold, diamond, timber, cocoa, coffee, coltan, manganese, copper, bauxite and tin ore. We demand a say in the way your governments are run; a say in the way you and your ministers are selected. We demand a say in the way you spend our money; and a say in the way contracts are awarded. It is not going to be business as usual anymore. We demand change now. We demand probity and accountability now. We demand political action to solve the numerous problems facing we the people.
Look at the world around you. Don’t you see or hear what is going in Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America? Can’t you see that you and your people are being left behind? When you meet with your colleagues in Africa or sit in your offices, how many of the things you see or use are made here in Africa? Aren’t you ashamed that after ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty years in power your people still use hoes and cutlasses for farming, tools their forefathers used before they were colonised? Aren’t you ashamed that after all these years of independence your people cannot feed themselves; cannot read and write; rely on handouts from Europe and America; and the youth are in a hurry to leave the continent for you? Can’t you see?
Well, a word to wise is enough but remember that you can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. We are watching.
By Lord Aikins Adusei
(On behalf of the People of Africa)
Cc: Africa Union
UN General Assembly
European Commission
United States Government
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We’re doing a digital quilt in class, and I can’t find anything useful on the internet, except on CultureGrams, that they like to eat Peanut Butter stew. =P yuck.
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