J. H. Kwabena Nketia has described the poetry of Akan talking drums:

The development of the poetic tradition has not been confined to the spoken voice. A great deal of Akan heroic poetry is conveyed through the medium of horns, pipes, and drums. Although drums are used in Akan society for making a limited number of announcements, they are also vehicles of literature. On state occasions poems of special interest are drummed to the chief and the community as a whole. These poems run into many scores of verses and fall into four groups.

First there are the poems of the drum prelude called the Awakening, Anyaneanyane. When a drummer is playing these poems he begins by announcing himself, closing the opening with the formula: "I am learning, let me succeed" or "I am addressing you, and you will understand."

He then addresses...