The history of the beautiful percussion Conga drum is somehow
confusing… as well as the present of it! Let’s start with the
present: the name “conga” is wrong, assuming that you pronounce
it the right way. What is called conga in English, is actually a
rhythm that is played in Cuba during Carnival. To have a better
idea of what is “conga” in Cuba check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJp3SEyapgY The term that is used
in Cuba and in the Spanish world to refer to the percussion
conga is tumbadora. About the pronunciation, the right one is
CONE-gah, not changa or koonga… you can check out this funny
video I did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H214tLvmnFg Many
articles and studies are pointing out to either Central Africa
origins (from the Congo area as the name let us think!) or Cuban
descent. Possibly, the conga develop in Cuba during the black
slavery as an attempt, by a mix crowd of different cultures and
heritages, to recreate drums traditionally used in Central
Africa called “makuta“… so we c