Azah Given Mphago, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and percussionist from South Africa's city of Pretoria, who began playing drums at the age of eight.

His work is deeply rooted in the belief that percussion carries more than rhythm, it carries healing, memory, and connection to ancestral knowledge systems.

Over the years, he has developed a practice that moves between performance, composition, and cultural research, engaging African musical traditions while also working across contemporary genres and collaborations.

We spoke to him about how percussion instruments continue to function as  living cultural tools across different spaces and contexts.