Dominican Republic · Sacred double-headed drum making
Congos
The making of the congos — double-headed drums played with the hands — central to the ceremonial practice of the Cofradía del Espíritu Santo de los Congos de Villa Mella, an Afro-Dominican religious brotherhood founded by African and mestizo slaves in the 16th century in Villa Mella, a district north of Santo Domingo. UNESCO proclaimed the brotherhood's cultural space a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001, recognizing its music, dance, and festival tradition as a distinctive expression of West African spiritual heritage fused with Spanish Catholic devotion to the Holy Spirit. The brotherhood and its drum tradition are documented as under active threat from declining interest in Afro-descendant heritage, urban growth, migration, unemployment, and cultural homogenization.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Proclaimed a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001, one of the Dominican Republic's earliest and most significant UNESCO cultural recognitions
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