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Imani Sanga is Professor of Music in the Department of Creative Arts, formerly called Department of Fine and Performing Arts, in the College of Humanities at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He teaches courses in Ethnomusicology, Philosophy of Music, Composition and Choral Music. [1] And he conducts the university choir.
Born in 1972, Imani Sanga was educated at Chimala Primary School in Mbeya Region, Kidugala Lutheran Seminary, University of Dar es Salaam [2] and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He earned his BA in 1999 and MA in 2001, both from the University of Dar es Salaam. He earned his PhD degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2006. He wrote his PhD dissertation entitled Muziki wa Injili: Temporal and Spatial Aesthetics of Popular Church Music in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (1980s–2005) under the supervision of Professor Beverly Parker. He spent August to December 2007 as a research scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mount Holyoke College, through the Five College African Scholars Program, working on the manuscript for a book based on his PhD dissertation. [3] In 2009, he won a fellowship from the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to work on his book on post-colonial soundscapes. [4] He is also a recipient of Kent R. Mulikin fellowship at the National Humanities Center (2019-2020).
Sanga's research and published works focus on the church music and popular music of Tanzania, in relation to the construction of gendered, religious and national identities within the context of globalisation as well as the use of music in Tanzanian Swahili literature. His work draws from a number of theoretical perspectives from African philosophy, aesthetics of music, post colonial theory, cultural theory and continental philosophy.
2010
This book focuses on Muziki wa Injili (gospel music), one of the newer music genres in Tanzania. It explores the ways in which performances of this music and practices surrounding its creation and use are related to various concepts of time and space. Through ethnographic accounts and musical analyses, he examines various changes that have taken place in Muziki wa Injili since the 1980s to 2005 and he discusses the role this music genre has played in shaping people’s experiences of events, identities and social relations (with particular reference to gendered, national and religious identities and relations) in Dar es Salaam.
1996
This book is a songbook collection of Sanga's earlier compositions and arrangements of traditional songs from various music cultures in Tanzania for church choirs.
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
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.
Dodoma, officially Dodoma City, is the national capital of Tanzania and the capital of the Dodoma Region, with a population of 410,956. In 1974, the Tanzanian government announced that the capital would be moved to Dodoma for social and economic reasons and to centralise the capital within the country. It became the official capital in 1996. Much of the initial design did not come to fruition for a long time. As a result, Dar es Salaam remains the commercial capital of Tanzania and still retains the state house Ikulu, and a large number of government functions.
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.
Ujamaa was a socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Rose Muhando known professionally as Rose Muhando, is a Tanzanian Gospel singer, songwriter and choreographer, respected as Queen of gospel music. She was born and raised in Kilosa district, Morogoro region, Tanzania.
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.
Edwin Semzaba was a Tanzanian novelist, playwright, actor and director. He wrote his works mainly in Swahili. He taught in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he taught, among other courses, creative writing and acting. He won the first award of East African Writers awarded by the Institute of Swahili Research for his novel Funke Bugebuge and the "grandchildren's adventure book writing competition" awarded by the Swedish Embassy in Tanzania (2007).
Ramazani "Remmy" Mtoro Ongala was a Tanzanian guitarist and singer. Ongala was born in Kindu near the Tanzanian border, in what was the Belgian Congo at the time, and now is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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.
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.
William Augustao Mgimwa was a Tanzanian CCM politician and Member of Parliament for Kalenga constituency from 2010 to 2014. He also served as Tanzania's Minister of Finance from 2012 to 2014.
Sofia Kawawa was the co-founders of the Tanzania Women's Union (UWT). She was a member of the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) party and later Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Ruth E. Meena is a Tanzanian feminist activist and political scientist. She was a professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Dar es Salaam.
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.
Singeli or sometimes called Sengeli is a Tanzanian music genre that originated with the Zaramo in the Mtogole neighborhood of the Tandale ward in Kinondoni District of Dar es Salaam Region around the mid-2000s. The genre has since the late 2010s spread throughout Tanzania, and since 2020 the surrounding Great Lakes. Singeli is a ngoma music and dance where a MC performs over fast tempo taarab music, often at between 200 and 300 beets per minute (BPM) while females dance. Male and female MCs are near equally common, however styles between MC gender typically differ significantly. Male MCs usually perform in fast-paced rap, while female MCs usually perform kwaya.
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