Culture and Tanzanian Folklore

Tanzanian Folklore is so impressive so that one cannot miss to admire it one more time . This page is to guide about the best Tanzania traditional folklore and their types.

One of the most entertaining examples of Tanzanian folklore for the visitor must be the traditional dances, ngomas, now performed on many tourist itineraries. Depicting day to day activities, customary traditions, or even a particular traditional event or occasion, these colorful dances are performed with great hair.

The Kiswahili word "ngoma" comes from the great drum, which is the main instrument used in any musical accompaniment to the dances. Bare hands or sticks beat out a rhythm for the dancers to follow. This basic african sound many be enhanced through the use if various other instruments besides the drum.

These include flutes, xylophones, whistles, animal horns as trumpets, the marimba, the panjo, or even mango stones tied to the dancers' legs. Dance styles vary from tribe to tribe. The Wa-Makonde vibrate their bottoms in a Sindimba frenzy.

The Wa-Zaramo bounce in undulating Mdundiko processions. The unique Wa-Maasai "leaping dance" is accompanied only by the rhythmic chant of their deep voices.

Dance costumes are just as exciting often even frightening to behold. Face paint, spiritual masks, or stilts transforming dancers into walking giant ghosts are all used to great effect, the most incredible of all being the live snake "costume" worn by the Wa-Sukuma in their gobogobo dance.

Traditionally believed to be snake charmers, the Wa-Sukuma, their bodies draped in the coils of a lethal, sometimes exceptionally large, reptile, wriggle to the drum beat before stunned spectators.

The dance involves embracing the reptiles and struggling with them. True to the old adage that music stimulates them, the snakes become increasingly excited as the tempo increases, their wild gyrations often scattering the terrified audience.

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