Dar es Salaam or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over six million people, Dar is the largest city in East Africa and the seventh-largest in Africa. Located on the Swahili coast, Dar es Salaam is an important economic centre and is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in northeastern Tanzania. According to the 2022 national census, Tanzania has a population of nearly 62 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator.
As it is in other countries, the music in Tanzania is constantly undergoing changes, and varies by location, people, settings and occasion. The five music genres in Tanzania, as defined by BASATA are, ngoma, dansi, kwaya, and taarab, with bongo flava being added in 2001. Singeli has since the mid-2000s been an unofficial music of uswahilini, unplanned communities in Dar es Salaam, and is the newest mainstream genre since 2020.
Bongo Flava is a nickname for Tanzanian music. The genre developed in the 1990s, mainly as a derivative of American hip hop and traditional Tanzanian styles such as taarab and dansi, with additional influences from reggae, R&B, and afrobeats, to form a unique style of music. Lyrics are usually in Swahili or English, although increasingly from mid 2000s there has been limited use of words from Sub-Saharan African music traditions due to the influence of Afrobeats and Kwaito with their dynamics usage of West African Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin or other Creole language.
Tanzanian Hip-hop, which is sometimes referred to Bongo Flava by many outside of Tanzania's hip hop community, encompasses a large variety of different sounds, but it is particularly known for heavy synth riffs and an incorporation of Tanzanian pop.
Following Tanganyika's independence (1961) and unification with Zanzibar (1964), leading to the formation of the state of Tanzania, President Julius Nyerere emphasised a need to construct a national identity for the citizens of the new country. To achieve this, Nyerere provided what has been regarded by some commentators as one of the most successful cases of ethnic repression and identity transformation in Africa.
The Tanzania Mainland Premier League is a top-level Tanzanian professional football league, governed by the Tanzania Football Federation.
The Tanzania FA Cup is the top knockout tournament of the Tanzanian football.
Muziki wa dansi, or simply dansi, is a Tanzanian music genre, derivative of Congolese soukous and Congolese rumba. It is sometimes called Swahili jazz because most dansi lyrics are in Swahili, and "jazz" is an umbrella term used in Central and Eastern Africa to refer to soukous, highlife, and other dance music and big band genres. Muziki wa dansi can also be referred to as Tanzanian rumba, as "african rumba" is another name for soukous.
The 2007 CECAFA Cup is the 31st edition of the football tournament that involves teams from East and Central Africa.
Born in Morogoro (Tanzania), Ras Nas, aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi, is a musician and poet from Tanzania who blends African music and reggae with a dash of poetry. Ras Nas' latest album, Dar-es-Salaam, contains roots reggae, soukous and dub poetry. It is released by Kongoi Productions, KonPro. Dar es Salaam has received a five star review in one of Norway's biggest dailies, Dagsavisen.
The 2010 CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup is the 34th edition of the competition. The host of the tournament is Tanzania.
The Cuban Marimba Band was an influential Tanzanian big band from the city of Morogoro. It was founded in 1948 by Salum Abdullah, who had previously formed the Morogoro Jazz Band. For about twenty years, Cuban Marimba was one of the most popular muziki wa dansi bands in Tanzania.
DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra has been one of the most popular Tanzanian muziki wa dansi bands.
Morogoro Jazz Band, also known as K.Z. Morogoro Jazz Band, was a seminal muziki wa dansi band from Morogoro, Tanzania. The band originally played live at the clubs and bars of Morogoro and became very popular in the 1960s and 1970s, receiving considerable airplay from Tanzanian radio stations. The leader of the band was guitarist Mbaraka Mwinshehe, who dropped out of school to join the band in 1965. Coincidentally, the band was formed the same year Mwinsheshe was born, in 1944. The original lineup of the band featured Makala Kindamile, Joseph Thomas, Seif Ally, Daudi Ally and Shaabana Mwambe. Salim Abdullah, who would later found Cuban Marimba Band, was also an early member of the band.
Orchestra Maquis Original is a Tanzanian muziki wa dansi band, originally from DR Congo. Founded in 1970 and still in activity, it is one of the most long-lived dansi bands.
Msondo Ngoma is an influential and long-lived Tanzanian muziki wa dansi band. Having been established in 1964, it is the oldest active dansi band in Tanzania.
The 2011 CECAFA Cup was an international football competition consisting of East and Central African national teams. It was the 35th edition of the annual CECAFA Cup. The tournament was hosted by Tanzania for the second consecutive year and seventh time overall.
Ngoma(also ng'oma or ing'oma) is a Bantu term with many connotations that encompasses music, dance, and instruments. In Tanzania ngoma also refers to events, both significant life-changing events such as the first menstruation or the birth or passing of a loved one, as well as momentary events such as celebrations, rituals, or competitions. Ngoma was the primary form of culture throughout the Great Lakes and Southern Africa. Today it is most notable in Tanzania, where it is deemed an official music genre by the National Arts Council (BASATA - Baraza la Sanaa la Taifa). In Tanzania, it is experienced throughout the country and performed, taught, and studied in many schools and universities. The most notable school for ngoma is the Bagamoyo Arts and Cultural Institute, which produces the most prominent chairmen (directors/conductors) and dancers.
