How it began
The cajon is a wooden box drum that the player sits on and strikes with the hands. It came from the coast of Peru. During colonial times enslaved Africans there were forbidden to play their own drums, and they turned everyday objects such as shipping crates and wooden boxes into substitutes. Out of that practice came an instrument that became central to Afro-Peruvian music and dance.
No inventor or exact date is recorded. Written evidence of the cajon in Peru is reported from the middle of the 19th century, and its construction and use changed over time.
How it spread
In the 20th century Afro-Peruvian artists including Nicomedes Santa Cruz and Caitro Soto promoted the cajon as a cornerstone of their culture. Its move abroad is usually dated to 1977, when the Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia encountered it in Peru. Accounts say his percussionist Rubem Dantas came across the instrument being played by Caitro Soto. Paco de Lucia brought it into flamenco, and from there musicians around the world took it up.
Where it stands today
The cajon is now one of the most widely used hand percussion instruments, heard in flamenco, jazz, pop and world music. In Peru it was declared Cultural Heritage of the Nation in 2001. On the Peruvian coast it is described as almost as common in homes as a guitar, and it remains the rhythmic base of Afro-Peruvian celebrations. It is also taught abroad, for example in community music schools in the United States.
