Twelve dancing drummers take the stage with their instruments on their heads and drum sticks in hand. Dressed in the red, white and green colours of Burundi, they move forward in single file, stomping the floor with their feet as the murmur of their voices creates a balance somewhere between an incantation and a clamour. They then move into formation, in a large semi-circle around the central drum, a symbol of power that soon becomes the centre of a deafening ballet of reverences, warrior fights and desire set to the rhythm of chants and the beating drums. The ritual has barely changed in a millennium, passing from extreme solemnness to radiating joy, but each time becoming something new in the rush of the moment.

The Drummers of Burundi are known throughout the word for their acrobatic agility and the gripping intensity of their performances. Originally royal herdsmen, they are more than the guardians of an ancient ancestral local tradition. With them, the rhythms, cries and dances are a testament of the history of mankind, etched on their bodies as a living and moving imprint of a universal story that continues to be written and passed on through the inscribing power of movement, booming voices and pulsating beats. Seeing and hearing the Drummers of Burundi is like listening to the obstinate beating of our collective and private memories as they resonate and perpetuate in the great sounding boxes of time and our souls.