Photograph by Andrew Doench
Utter silence accompanies the faceless stranger in the corner of the screen. The room is empty, save for a glowing lantern beside him, its flame throwing shadows on the wall. Dark red and violet light washes over the scene. Smoke pours into the frame, further obscuring the man.
The figure’s arms and cheeks are streaked with white paint. Tattered green cloth wraps around his wrists and covers his eyes. All that is discernible is a mouth, lips pressed into quiet.
One by one, viewers pour into the TikTok live, captivated by the stranger on their screens. The number steadily grows into the thousands, then tens of thousands.
Questions start rolling into the comments: “Who is he? What is he doing? Why isn’t he speaking?” Yet, the man remains silent—he is an unearthly presence that can only be described as supernatural.
“That’s how I understood the power of the character,” says Basko Djonze, the man behind the screen, who goes by the TikTok handle @baskotydjonze. “He doesn’t speak. But when he shows up, there is something. People are attracted to everything that is mystery.”
According to Djonze, this is the Warrior. In other clips, the Warrior is in motion, vibrating and dancing with intense precision. Underneath the emerald cloth and white paint, Djonze is a local street dancer gone viral on TikTok for his performances. But before he was known as the Warrior, Djonze was a boy in Gabon, dancing in the rain to the beat of drums.
“In Gabon, we create everything with dance,” he says. “There’s a dance for rain, a dance for thunder, for wind, a dance for a newborn child. Dancing is natural. Eighty percent of the population in Gabon naturally know how to dance.”
Djonze learned to dance at the age of 7. In Gabon, movement is more than an art form; it is a way of preserving cultural memory. A former French colony that gained independence in 1960, Gabon is a diverse nation in central Africa with more than 40 ethnic groups.
Like other African countries, Gabon’s century-plus of colonial rule suppressed or erased traditional customs. In the late 19th century, France controlled large swaths of Central and West Africa, including Gabon. By 1910, Gabon was one of four territories that made up French Equatorial Africa. Colonial rule imposed French language and education while repressing Gabonese culture, such as indigenous languages and spirituality. While now an independent country, Gabon still feels the strong after-effects of France’s long-standing governance. But for Djonze and others, dancing is a way to stay rooted to their ancestry.
“Gabon is a French country. We speak French. Everything is French. The program is French. The school is French,” says Djonze. “I was very curious about what my true self is, through my history, through my nation group, where I come from. Why am I here?”
As Djonze grew, so did his love for dance, leading him to pursue it professionally. He traveled across Africa and Europe, from France to Cameroon to Nigeria, eager to learn more about himself and the world. It was then that he realized his mission: to travel, learn from other cultures, and teach others about Gabon. To achieve this, he dances.
“Dancing is a universal language,” Djonze says. “I don’t have to speak English. I just have to dance.”
Djonze is supported by the Cultural Ministers of Gabon, meaning he is sent around the world to share and learn dances as a cultural ambassador. Equipped with talent and fueled by curiosity, Djonze set off to discover his identity and ancestral roots beyond Gabon.
Djonze did the bulk of his traveling from 2013 to 2018, including a brief stint in Cincinnati during 2015. In 2019, he came back to the U.S., spending time in New York before making his way to the Queen City once again.
Upon his return, Djonze lived with Jide Fresh, a local artist he had met through a mutual friend. At the time, Fresh was recovering from a car accident that left him partially disabled. Living with Djonze for half a year, he was motivated by the dancer.
“Seeing Basko get up every single day and pour into his art form, it inspired me to pour into mine and realize that what’s more important than the talent you have is the time you put into it,” Fresh says.
For Fresh, art was fundamental to healing during his long recovery. He founded In Fly We Trust, a company that produces activity books that promote personal well-being. With Fresh’s motivational illustrations, readings, and coloring activities, the books are meant to help overcome challenges.
“It’s all focused around becoming your elevated self, recognizing everybody goes through something, but it’s how do you respond to it?” Fresh says.
Like Fresh, Djonze saw art as a means of revitalization. His roommate became accustomed to the incessant stomping from upstairs, Djonze’s footsteps reverberating throughout the house. The dancer spent upwards of 10 hours a day practicing at home, with little rest. He was eager to break into the street dance scene.
Cincinnati has a rich history when it comes to hip-hop and street dance, including as a home to Scribble Jam, once dubbed the largest hip-hop festival in the country. Established in 1997, the annual event found success as a hub for street dancers, rappers, and other hip-hop artists. With its ending in 2008, however, dancers had to travel to compete.
Despite this challenge, local dance crews such as the Millennium Robots, founded by Julius Jenkins (a.k.a. Eclypse) remained in Cincinnati. Nowadays, these dancers perform on the streets and at events such as Art After Dark, a monthly celebration at the Cincinnati Art Museum featuring live performances.
This is where Jenkins first met Djonze in 2015. Having just finished an event at the CAM, Jenkins heard that there was a man breakdancing in the museum lobby—a man who belonged to no group, but still moved with a remarkable fervor.
Jenkins, who knew nearly all of the street dancers in Cincinnati, was confounded. He approached an ecstatic Djonze, who introduced himself; he had been searching for American street performers for months, wanting to learn about the country’s hip-hop culture, and meeting Jenkins was exactly the opportunity he’d been looking for.
“He was so happy…and I didn’t understand at the time why,” says Jenkins. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anybody that excited about finding street dance.”
After their chance meeting, Djonze joined performances with the Millennium Robots, learning robotic dance movements while sharing the traditional African dance style he grew up with.
Surprisingly, living in the U.S., Djonze found that many African dance classes were taught inaccurately. The movements and cultural contexts were misrepresented. Simultaneously, he discovered that his understanding of American hip-hop had been misconstrued. He had a French perception of American dance, while Americans had a Western one of African dance.
So, when Jenkins founded Heroes Rise Street Dance Academy in 2020—the first dance studio in Cincinnati to bring street dance into an educational studio setting—he had Djonze join as co-founder and as an instructor. The educational nonprofit offers classes, performances, and events for children and adults.
Jenkins had realized that while students wanted to learn how to dance, they also sought to learn the origins of the moves they were practicing. Having Djonze’s knowledge of authentic African dance and history at the table was the answer to his students’ call for education.
“Once I met Basko, I realized that at first, I was only operating under the American street style banners. Because there’s almost no representation for authentic street dances in the education spaces,” says Jenkins. “The more Basko learned and shared with me, the more it made complete sense that there needed to be an educational bridge between here and Africa. That’s really the essence of all of these dances, whether they’re the Black vernacular dances here in America or they’re the street dances in Africa; all of social dance is about connecting to other people.”
While teaching, Djonze aimed to expand his influence. He was already fairly popular in West Africa for creating a dance known as “Zyeute,” which translates to “look at me.” It consists of shimmying the shoulders, alternating arms while pointing at the eyes. The move has spread globally among the street dance community, as well as online. He started posting videos of dances and tutorials on TikTok in 2021, including street, dance, traditional Gabonese dance, and his own “Zyeute.” Yet, he wasn’t gaining the traction he hoped for.
So one day, instead of making a video, he went live. Dressed in his traditional Warrior garb, Djonze chose not to dance that day. Instead, he remained motionless.
The Warrior’s outfit is deeply intricate; white lines painted on his body mark the path he’s taking in life, with each added stripe representing a choice he’s made. The animals on his shirt are in honor of Gabon’s richly dense forests.
“This is the authentic Gabonese man you would see if we didn’t have colonization,” Djonze says. “When I have the traditional clothes, it’s like I represent more than the value; I represent people. I represent life. I represent warriors. I represent something that is beyond.”
At first, viewers were bewildered by the faceless entity. As he sat, a figure bathed in colored light, the viewer count reached 13,000. From then on, Djonze’s platform on TikTok skyrocketed.
This is how he learned the magnetism of the Warrior, the clips of which continue to be his most popular today. In Gabon, women are seen as light, guiding the way. Men are the feet, or foundation. Djonze holds a lantern and walks barefoot, symbolizing the female and male energies in Gabonese tradition. As the Warrior, Djonze dances as an act of peaceful resistance against colonization, keeping ancient traditions alive.
These days, his following is a mix of both curiosity and adoration. Viewers attempt to replicate the dances and ask questions about his culture. The popularity among viewers is evident: Djonze’s TikTok account has more than 1.6 million followers and 10 million likes.
As his following continues to grow, Djonze reaffirms that popularity is not what he is seeking. Rather, he aims to present his culture in a way that is demystifying for outsiders. He sees himself as a mirror for others to do the same.
“I am my ancestors’ greatest dream,” he says. “I am an incarnation of change that I want to see.”
Today, Djonze is a cultural ambassador, teacher, and performer in Cincinnati, helping others tap into the “supernatural,” or a way of moving through the world by being yourself, fully and fiercely.
“You’re here to fulfill your true self. Explore everything and make sure that before you leave this place, you have explored your full potential and your full capacity, mental capacity, physical capacity, everything,” Djonze says. “You’re supernatural.”
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