Ouakam from DRUMS UNDEFINED by HIJI

In 1819, a drum circle in Congo Square brought together Africans of many cultures, each carrying their own rhythmic language. In that weekly gathering, distinct traditions mixed and a shared new rhythm began to emerge—an ancestral pulse that would eventually echo through global music.

Nearly two centuries later, I lived in Ouakam, Dakar, studying sabar with local drummers beneath the African Renaissance Monument. Their rhythms function like a language: precise, communal, and overwhelming in their expressive power. Each day I was reshaped by a vocabulary spoken entirely through drums—refined over generations, yet alive with raw intensity.

From Dakar’s coast, Gorée Island is visible—the point from which many were taken across the Atlantic, including those who once played in Congo Square. Their rhythmic languages crossed oceans, transformed, and became part of the world’s musical foundation.

One of these rhythms now travels even farther: Senegalese sabar drumming is encoded on the Voyager 1 “Golden Record,” currently drifting through interstellar space.

A language born in the cradle of rhythm continues its journey—carrying a fragment of Earth’s voice into the unknown.

HIJI / Masaya Hijikata (Moussa KalamUllah)

Drummer and artist based in Warsaw.

Drummer of klās’tĭk and sehno. He works across genres while pursuing a personal practice centered on “pre-linguistic rhythm.” Integrating somatic awareness, breath, and Eastern thought, he develops a unique drumming approach that treats rhythm as a living interface between body and world.