With wild dancing to a furious beat, booming wooden drums echo over a hill in Burundi - an ancient sound, a sacred tradition and once a symbol of unity for the kingdom.
Youngsters dance around the circle of 15 drummers led by 79-year-old Antime Baranshakaje, still sprightly and waving spear and shield, himself the former drummer of the last king of this small central African nation.
Here on a hilltop in Gishora, about 100km east of the capital, Bujumbura, the drummers perform. It is an impressive show; so much so that the ritual dance of the royal drums was placed on Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage list last year. "The entire population of Burundi recognises it as a fundamental part of its heritage and identity," the UN body said.
Today the drums are played for entertainment, but for centuries they were a sacred rite - a powerful memory for a country whose recent history has been scarred by decades of civil war and bloodshed.
"The drum was the symbol of royal power," says Father Adrien Ntabona, a Catholic abbot and anthropologist. "It was no little thing, nor as commonplace as it is today … For God came through the drum to protect the monarchy and the kingdom, the whole country."
Indeed, in the Kirundi language, the word for drum - - is the same as that for kingdom.
