Praise House

Now back in Africa everywhere you go we used the drum for communication. It was the main instrument for anything we did. We know what the drum was saying but the master didn't know. He thought we could talk about leaving or escaping. So he didn't let us bring the drums over here.

Another way to keep the rhythm of the shout was the use of a walking stick on the wooden floor of the praise house. Oh, yes sir! When you hear that beat and that wood meet the wood you can hear the heartbeat of Africa.

Now see Reverend Leroy over there? Reverend Leroy sure knows how to keep the beat going. Oh Rev. come on and show 'em what you know, show 'em Rev. Show 'em how to keep that beat of Africa going.

During a meeting in the Praise House we use our hands, we use our bodies, we sing the song, we stomp our feet, whatever it takes to keep that rhythm because the rhythm is the most important part of African American music.

The Africans were accustomed to taking just whatever they had in their immediate environment and making good use of it, so when the master took the drum, we found gourds.

The gourds grew down here in the south just like they grew back home and after they dry out, the seeds inside give it a shakin' sound. Oh, yes sir!

Now the ring shout was straight from Africa. The only thing Africans could do without permission on the plantation was to sing. Oh, yes sir. We sing down the cotton field, up and down them cotton rows.

If you wasn't a member of the praise house, you could not be up in no ring shout, and as long as you shuffle your foot from side to side you were doing it right, but when you cross your ankle that be the devil dance. You ain't doing the ring shout then.