Dar es Salaam

Simba Theatre practices throughout the week at the Nyumba ya Sanaa and usually performs once or twice a week.  Ngoma, which translates as dance, drumming and song, either taken together or separately, is considered the traditional music of Tanzania. Most ngoma groups consist of a leader (who composes songs and directs a group in performance), drummers, instrumentalists, song leaders (who lead the main call of songs), and dancers (who also backup the singers). The music and songs of ngoma vary by cultural group, yet there are similarities in the use of certain rhythms and the relationship of a dancer’s movement to rhythms of drummers.  Due to the importance of ngoma in Tanzania’s past, it is impossible to adequately summarize their historical development here, though such a study would be useful since no broad research on Tanzanian ngoma exists.