Makuta are tall cylindrical or barrel-shaped Afro-Cuban drums, and also the dance and rhythms played on them. It is a dance-drumming event with sacred significance, linked to the cabildos of Bantu or Congo ancestry.
Makuta belongs to Cuban cabildos claiming Bantu or Congo ancestry. It is public religious music, unlike the more secretive practices of Palo. Its African antecedents may have accompanied royal coronations; funerals sometimes include the kinfuiti friction drum. After the revolution, folkloric groups began performing makuta on stage, in recordings and for tourists, often on tumbadoras instead of makuta drums.
The ensemble usually has two drums, built from wooden staves, with a goatskin head on top and an open bottom:
The drums are often painted with the symbols of their cabildo, and the players stand. The lead drummer sometimes wears wrist shakers, as in yuka and rumba. Makuta is often cited as an important influence on the development of the tumbadora (conga).
Makuta and yuka differ: makuta has sacred significance and usually two drums, yuka is secular and uses three drums (caja, mula and cachimbo). According to Wikipedia, the vacunao of guaguancó, the pelvic thrust with which the man tries to "catch" the woman, derives from the yuka and makuta dances; EcuRed calls the erotic couple dances "of makuta or yuka" the possible basis of yambú and guaguancó.