About IKHAYA

Ikhaya means house or home in Nguni langauge, also in the sense of, the meeting place of ideas, visions and experiences.
Ikhaya includes creative minds, visionary and enthusiastic users and anybody who participates.

Ikhaya is the place to exchange ideas and share creations and is also a feeling that evolves when people part knowledge and opinions. The Togetherness, the place of meeting and the resultant visions and experiences as a whole is called ikhaya.
You are a piece of it. The individual is not ikhaya. This is the simple view of life of the native Nguni people.

So Ikhaya Drums invites you to bring and advertise if you have something traditional or alternative to offer.

About Mark Oostendorp

(beginners and intermediate facilitator)

Since I first saw drummers playing the djembe, I wanted to own my own djembe, but always thought that they were too overpriced in the markets. I also had this passion for working with wood, sculpting and formal carpentry that I decided that I will make my own drum. I left South Africa in 1995 to live in a yoga eco village in Philippines and it is there that I drummed extensively. At this temple we did at least 3 hours of chanting a day with the accompaniment of cymbals and drums. I lived in the yoga eco village for 3 and half years and returned to South Africa in 1998.

But it was only later, in 31 December 1999, when almost everybody thought that the world was going to end, that I decided to go and sleep in a cave in the mountains in Cape Town. In this cave I met a group of people who were making drums from the Agave (sisal) tree. This was a perfect opportunity to learn this skill. So over 48 hours, I learnt the basics of drum making. I left the cave full of enthusiasm with my 1st little djembe and the hope of making many drums. I searched and found many dried out agaves trees, dug them up and started applying what I have learnt in the cave. Soon I had mastered the skill of heading and tuning the djembes. My background in the use of woodworking tools boosted my confidence and creativity and soon after I started selling my drums.

One of my first drums that I made I gave as a gift to the Xavante tribe in the Amazon. I made around 50 djembes in a short period of time, which are spread over the world. I left Africa in 2002 to work and live in Romania. The first thing that I missed was to attend a drumming circle, and immediately thought of starting my own drum circles. It was a dream then and now it has become a reality, and it came at the right time.

Most of my drumming was intuitional; it came from within as I did not have a drum teacher until I started drumming with a drum circle in Cape Town. Here I learnt West African djembe tunes. I am still in the developing stage of drumming and together with my students I am constantly learning. I am facilitating beginners and intermediate djembe classes, and I am happy to share everything I know with my students.

Passionate about percussion since his early age, Vincent Calissa (his real name, PJ Vincent being my artist name), is one of those rare drummers who knows how to originally combine African with European music. PJ Vincent has left his country very early to discover the world. He arrived in Romania in 1998, after living in several African countries.

During his second year in Romania, he participated in the launch of the one and only group of African music players from Romania (Gloria). Thanks to Gloria, the African culture conquered the heart of Romanians, through many concerts in cities across the country as well as numerous television appearances on popular Romania TV channels.

In 2006 he began collaborating with other local groups, by providing its expertise in different concerts and in studio recordings, as percussionist and as backing vocal.

In this same year, he became PJ resident in one of the most prestigious club of Bucharest (The Office) in close collaboration with several resident DJs. He performed here for 2 years, and delighted fans, customers and fans of the club with the passion he puts into playing live percussion on any style of African music (house, R&B, techno, Latin, house etc).

His vision of international music encouraged him to do the rounds of most popular nightclubs of Bucharest, from the country and abroad. PJ Vincent had the pleasure of playing together with local artists as Pepe or Taxi and international as Akon, DJ INO..etc.

In late 2006 he was involved in teaching African percussion (basic concept and African rhythm using the Djembe, maracas and dundumba) to applicants for asylum seeker and refugee in a nongovernmental organization (JRS-Romania).

Between 2007 - 2008 he continued to give classes in African percussion in Czech Republic, where over 20 students participated.

It is with great pleasure that finally he realized his old project: to open a school of African percussion in Bucharest - Romania, together with his friend and colleague Mark.