The African/Nigerian ashiko as such first got disseminated and popularized in some circles in the US in the 1930s, after Nigerian drummer Moses Mianns emigrated to New York in the 1930s. The drum he commissioned in the United States is in the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the NYPL. Examining it, one can see the original ashiko is not a simple cone drum but is, in fact, curved on the inside, creating a softer tone, and emulating carved drums.