Nyahbinghi

Nyahbinghi is the liturgical music of the Rastafari movement, performed at groundations and reasoning sessions by an ensemble of three hand drums — the deep bass drum, the syncopated funde and the improvising kete repeater — over which participants chant biblical verses, hymns and praises to Jah. Named for the East African anti-colonial resistance figure Queen Nyahbinghi, the drumming was carried into Jamaican popular music by *Count Ossie* and his *Mystic Revelation of Rastafari*, whose sessions shaped the musicians who created ska and reggae; through *Ras Michael* and roots reggae it became one of the music's foundational rhythmic and spiritual languages.