"like the distillation of a thousand sorrow songs" and is intimately connected to the tragic history of displacement and slavery that brought the ancestors of the current inhabitants to the Grenadine islands:

The note was a lamentation that could hardly have come from the rum keg of a drum. It’s source had to be the heart, the bruised still-bleeding innermost chamber of the collective heart.

In the novel, Lebert Joseph represents the islanders who have grown up with the Big Drum ritual and understand it intimately. He knows the music and the dances, which he still performs, despite his limp and his advanced age. However, he is also familiar with the way the Big Drum ritual encodes the history of the African nations from which his family originated, and goes on to recount the horrors of enslavement, the Middle Passage, and labor in the Caribbean.

For Avey Johnson, the Big Drum ritual is a way of reconnecting with her culture after a lifetime of separation. It symbolizes the contradictions and complexity she faces in coming to Carriacou, from the festive atmosphere she encounters on her arrival to the bloody history of slavery to which the ritual bears witness.

The Big Drum Ritual is central to the culture of Carriacou. It is not only a performance of music and dance, but a religious rite and historical record. There are hundreds of song texts associated with the ritual, not to mention encoded rhythms which preserve the history of the African nations who inhabited Carriacou in the early eighteenth century. As well as expressing ancient myths and history through the medium of dance, the ritual is a living art form, which continues to develop. It brought African history to the Caribbean, recorded the horrors of the Middle Passage and enslavement, and now incorporates the modern history of the island.

In Praisesong for the Widow, Lebert Joseph is the direct inheritor of this ritual tradition. He is deeply aware of the history of Grenada and Carriacou, and proud of his descent from the Chamba nation in Africa. He knows the ritual music, and dances despite his age and his limp. Avey Johnson, by contrast, is discovering this African and Caribbean heritage for the first time. The Big Drum Ritual brings together many aspects of Carriacou's culture which make a strong impression on her, from the colorful, festive atmosphere to the memory of enslavement which prompts her meditations on the Middle Passage.