Since February 2014, the energy that was accumulated from persistent, brave, and hero women and girls has been inspiring and bold. In DRC, women and girls and men who love them marched to declare that they want the Congo to be a haven where rights are equally shared between men and women.

As we are going to the year 2015, we energetically announce the launch of One Billion Rising for Revolution in DRC. The rising is a proof that we will never stop to escalate our efforts to end violence against women and girls. Women of the Congo will continue to stand against violence.

As in other countries, we used and we will continue to use the drums and dance, but in such an African and Congolese way.

In D.R. Congo, drums hold a special place and a deeper symbolic and historical meaning. They are almost always an accompaniment for any manner of ceremony – births, deaths, marriages, healing ceremonies, rites of passage, ancestral worship, warrior rituals, as well as social dances. Drums can be used during full moon, harvesting time, baptisms, and countless other celebrations – together with a ritual dance. The vicious sound of many drums pounding together is also a necessary installment to stir up emotions in a battle or war to inspire excitement and passion.

In fact, we could say the drum was actually the first form of telephone.
Tribes, with the use of the drum, would communicate with other tribes often miles away. Drums were often used to signal meetings, dangers, etc.

Why are drums essential in One Billion Rising For Revolution in the DR Congo?

Drums are instruments that when you hear them you feel something inside your body, because they have this super natural power, which goes into the body and touches our soul and wake our spirit. A drum beat is like a heartbeat. When you hear it, you are led and seduced to believe that they have the same pulse.

There are some people in the Congo who have been waiting for a voice to awaken them. They need to hear the sound of the drum so as to take a spring. They need to be alerted in order to stop standing still or observing the cycle of violence powerlessly. They need their whole body to start to move and begin to dance with the drum rhythm. When their spirit and that of the drum come together as one spirit, communication through drum language will be born.
One Billion Rising For Revolution in the Congo is not different from a revolutionary attitude to wake up people who hear a drum and immediately put their fingers into their ears, because they cannot stand the drum spirit. They are afraid of their own spirit and energy they have, so the sound that comes out of the drum reminds them their spirit. It goes into the body very strongly and nobody can control it.