Origins and sound
The bougarabou comes from Senegal and is sometimes called the "African conga." It shares the djembe's general shape but is larger and closer to an hourglass than a goblet in profile. Its head, typically antelope or cow hide, produces a deep, bass-heavy tone, and its size means it is usually played seated, resting against the body or on a stand, rather than carried. Bougarabous are often played together in small groups, providing a harmonic bed under a lead drum such as the djembe.
The wood
The drums are hand carved, commonly in Ivory Coast, from two woods prized in West African drum making: iroko and lenke. Iroko is a large, long-lived hardwood tree native to the West African coast, sometimes marketed as "African teak" despite being unrelated to true teak; its pale wood darkens to a reddish brown with age. Among Yoruba communities the tree is regarded as inhabited by a powerful spirit, a belief reflected in the folk stories told about it elsewhere on this site.