Ngoma means drum!.

Moreover, in many Bantu traditions, the meaning of Ngoma extends far beyond the musical instrument itself. It can refer to the drum, music, dance, song, ritual, philosophy, and a healing practice rooted in ancestral connection, encompassing all of the above. In certain traditions, the initiatory societies that uphold these holistic medicine practices for balance and well-being are, themselves, called Ngoma, or bear names rooted in the word.

For thousands of years, drums have been used in rites of passage, spirit possession rituals, healing ceremonies, and communal gatherings that sustain the fabric of community and traditional ways of being. Drums are said to have a voice and to speak or sing. In diverse spiritual traditions, they are understood to be a spiritual technology used to journey, call, heal, and carry messages between worlds. Many ritual drums must be consecrated through culturally specific ceremonies. Suffice it to say, drums are a powerful force to wield in practice, and to the Bantu and Bantu-descended peoples across Africa and the diaspora, the ngoma and its music are integral in their spiritual and ceremonial lives. The legacy of ngoma can be heard today in the ritual and ceremonial music of the Americas through another drum born of its lineage, the conga drum of Afro-Cuban and Black diaspora traditions.

In Zimbabwe, Ngoma players may work alone or alongside mbira and hosho in ceremonies like the bira, helping to call and uplift the ancestors. In Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, and other nations of the diaspora, conga rhythms at the heart of Bantu-descended traditions carry the science and wisdom of the Kongo and the transposed rhythms of Yorubaland, Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, and more.

As with the mbira, ritual drums are traditionally played by trained and/or initiated musicians entrusted with supporting ancestors and divine energies. These individuals are not only trained technically but are more often experts in the energy and intention required to work with spirit. The drum becomes a sacred tool in their hands, bridging the seen and the unseen.