Bata Drums

The bata are a set of three double-headed tapered cylinders with a slight hourglass shape. They are talking drums, their three pitches matching those of the Yoruba language.

Bata drums originated in Yorubaland where they were and still are used for religious rituals. In the early 1800s, when hundreds of thousands of Yoruba people where enslaved and taken to Cuba, they took their musical heritage and religious practices with them. In Cuba, the drums are both sacred, used in what has become Santeria, and secular. They're now heard in popular music, after being introduced via Latin Jazz.