Batá Drum
The batá is the consecrated drum of Cuban Santería, an hourglass-shaped instrument with two heads of different sizes, played in a set of three, the small okónkolo, the middle itótele and the great iyá, the mother drum that speaks the lead voices. The drums descend from the Yoruba bata of West Africa, carried to Cuba by enslaved people and kept alive behind the Catholic saints, and their rhythms are said to speak the language of the orishas during ceremonies, each rhythm belonging to a particular spirit. A consecrated batá has the orisha Añá installed within it, and only initiated male drummers