TANZANIA: MUSIC AND DANCE

Music in Tanzania has long borrowed and been influenced by musical styles from a number of different groups who traveled through the area. Many of their traditional instruments are similar to those that are fairly ubiquitous throughout the broader region. This includes common ones like the mbira, goblet drums, rattles, and tuned drums. And some instruments (or variations of instruments) are specific to certain ethnic groups. Modern music utilizes many of the modern musical instruments we see today.

One of the most popular musical genres in Tanzania is Taarab. Coming from Islamic roots, it uses several instruments that are popular in the Middle East, like the oud and the qanun, but also uses a lot of African percussion instruments and European guitars, and even instruments from East Asia (like the Japanese taishokoto). The melodies were mainly Islamic songs mixed with ancient Swahili songs. It started to really gain popularity in the late 1920s, and by the 1960s, Taarab groups had started to modernize it a bit and introduce it to other nearby countries.

Tanzania is a multi-ethnic country, and each ethnic group has their own styles of traditional dance. These traditional dances were passed down from generation to generation and told stories or represented a facet of life. In modern society, they’ve been somewhat lost to the younger generations, but there are dance troupes out there trying to teach people their history.

Starting in the 1930s, Cuban rumba and other Latin genres began to make its way into Tanzania, and it was really popular! Bands started forming and performing this new music, often calling themselves jazz bands, even though many of them didn’t play jazz. They stayed popular as dance music bands throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Today, quite a few new genres have gained in popularity, based on European and American styles mixed with their traditional sounds and instruments. Bongo Flava developed during the 1990s as a mix between hip-hop and reggae and mostly sung in Swahili. Hip-hop is equally just as popular, with Dar es Salaam being one of the centers for hip-hop musicians to thrive. Likewise, reggae here has been influenced by African and Caribbean roots but with its particular Swahili flair added to it. By the way, Freddie Mercury of the band Queen was born in an Indian community on Zanzibar. They tried to do a big celebration for him, but plans were shut down because of his openly gay lifestyle, seeing how homosexuality is illegal there.

Ras Nas

I found quite a few artists on Spotify that I took a quick listen to. I started with a bit of reggae from Ras Nas. It’s pretty chill, and I really liked it. You can really tell that he makes use of the guitar using African styles and rhythms behind some of it. He used English and Swahili (I’m guessing) both in his songs.

I found a couple of hip-hop artists. I checked out Juma Nature. There weren’t too many of his songs posted on there, but the ones I listened to were pretty catchy. One was a little more chill, and one was a little faster. Obviously, I don’t know what he’s saying, but I liked the cadence and inflections. The other one I listened to was X Plastaz. They incorporate more Maasai rhythms and styles into their music. It was pretty catchy and put together well from what I heard.

Vanessa Mdee

Now for the big genre: Bongo Flava. First of all, there’s a nice playlist on Spotify. And some of the artists I sampled (and some are on that playlist) include Vanessa Mdee, Diamond Platnumz, Harmonize, Dully Sykes, and Nandy. I really like this genre. I feel like it’s something I could listen to while driving with the windows down. Like a summer playlist if it would ever get warm and stay warm.

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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: MUSIC AND DANCE

The Congolese refer to their music simply as ndule, the Lingala word for music. In fact, most of their own music is sung in Lingala with some French mixed in as well. After WWII, music in the DRC became more or less a fusion of African folk music mixed with Latin music, especially rumba coming out of Cuba. They adapted their music to include Latin instrumentation and styles.  The Belgians actually helped by bringing in electric guitars and equipment necessary to start recording music. The first recording studios were in Kinshasa.  Besides Cuban rumba, Congolese musicians were also influenced by American swing music and jazz, cabaret music from France, and a style known as highlife coming out of Ghana.  This new blend of Congolese became known as soukous and is highly influential in other areas around central Africa.

African jazz was super popular during the middle part of the 20^th century, and many jazz bands popped up all over the country, especially in the large cities. There were a lot of musicians who jumped back and forth between Kinshasa and Brazzaville. 

Soukous more or less became the base for almost all of the other styles of music in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  And then there were offshoots: rumba-rock, n’dombolo, etc. One band named Zaiko Langa Langa emerged and changed the genre to include a more smoother, pop-like sound, which many other bands and music groups followed as well. The term soukous has now become more of a catch-all term for all Congolese music.

And essentially, all Congolese music is dance music. Dance is so integrated with music that it’s hard to separate the two. Dance styles are generally named after the music it’s danced to. Different ethnic groups had their own dances and musical styles used to tell stories and act as part of special ceremonies.  The clip above is a great piece I found about Congolese dance today, combining tradition dance styles and ballet, telling the most pressing stories of women and other important issues at hand. 

Two super huge musicians that shaped Congolese music as we know it are definitely in my Spotify playlist. The first one is Joseph “Grand Kalle” Kabasele. I can definitely tell the Cuban influence on his music, but there’s also definitely an African quality to the guitar riffs.  There are times that I’ve wondered if I accidently switched over to my Cuban playlist instead. I love this music. I have the album Le Grande Kallé: His Life, His Music in my playlist.

 Another musician I found is Papa Wemba.  When I pulled up the photo of movie cover to La Vie est Belle, the DRC’s first major film produced (I mentioned it in my last post), it listed Papa Wemba on the cover – he did much of the music on the soundtrack.  I really like his music as well, and again, I can sense some of the Latin flavor in his music in regards to instrumentation and rhythms.  I liked the album Best of Papa Wemba: Cantos Essentials. 

 Another album in my playlist is Zaiko Langa Langa’s Tout Choc. It’s upbeat, and really, who doesn’t love a little cowbell?  It almost makes me think of outdoor cabanas, eating some kind of spicy, charred meat with a side of some fried plantains, drinking cold beer, taking in the warm breezes, and listening to this music for hours.

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