Data/Information Encryption - A cue from Ìlu Gángan (Yoruba Talking Drum)

Encryption is the process of encoding messages or information in such a way that only authorised parties can access it. Without encryption, online banking, online shopping, secure communication on the Internet etc would be impossible.

The mathematics behind even the simplest encryption algorithm is mind boggling!
But guess what? Before Cipher, telegraph and Morse code came into being the Yoruba ancestors were already transmitting encrypted messages for millennia!

I will be exploring how our ancestors used the Ifá Binary System to encode secret messages and how Nigerian mathematicians, cryptographers and computer geeks can use the same system to create military grade encryption algorithm in my future posts. Today however, it is all about the humble Ìlu Gángan.

The Gángan (talking drum) is well known in Yorubaland. These days most people only think of it as a mere percussion - musical instrument but beside its entertainment function, it is one of the most potent cryptographic device ever invented in Yorubaland. It is capable of transmitting encrypted messages or ciphers over a considerable distance!

In 1943, Irma Wassall, the poet opined -
“Across the Dark Continent sound the never-silent drums: the base of all music, the focus of every dance; the talking drums, the wireless of the unmapped jungle”.

The following examples are adapted from the book - "The Information" by James Gleick

To send the encrypted message:
“Padà wá s’ilè” (“Come back home”), you would use Gangan to compose something similar to the following acoustic rhythm:

“Jẹ̀ ki ẹsẹ̀ rẹ padà gẹ́gẹ́ bi wọ́n ti lọ,
Mo ni ko jẹ ki ẹsẹ̀ rẹ padà gẹ̀gẹ̀ bi wọ́n ti lọ,
A ni o pa ẹsẹ̀ rẹ papọ̀ ni abúlé wa.”

i.e
“Make your feet come back the way they went,
make your legs come back the way they went,
plant your feet and your legs below, in the village which belongs to us.”

To say Òkú (corpse), you would compose the following:
“Nkan ti o fi ẹ̀hìn re lélẹ̀ l’ori ilẹ̀”

i.e
“That which lies on its back on clods of earth.”

To say “Má bèrù” (don’t be afraid) you would beat the drum to say:

“À ní o mu ọkàn rẹ jade lati ẹnu rẹ, mo ni ọkàn rẹ láti ẹnu rẹ, ki o si muu padà lati ibẹ̀”

i.e
“Bring your heart back down out of your mouth, your heart out of your mouth, get it back down from there”

No exposition of this nature is complete without supporting it with at least one Ifa verse.
In Edi-Ogunda, the drum is personified as an obedient and a favourite of the Alaafin.

Dindinguda Dindinguda
A d’Ifa fun enlọjọ ìlù
Ti wọn n ṣawo lo s’ode Ọ̀yọ́
Dundun nikan lo n bẹ lẹyin to n ṣẹbọ
Dundun wa ni mo yin Dindinguda Dindinguda
Dundun pẹ̀lẹ́ o, Ayọ̀ Oba

Translation….
Dindinguda Dindinguda (the Ifa priest )
Divined for drum ensembles
That were going for performance in Ọ̀yọ́ town
Only Dundun remained behind to make a sacrifice
Dundun said that I praised my Ifa Priest Dindinguda Dindinguda
Dundun well done, the favorite of (Ọ̀yọ́) King.