Chamwino Connect

Happy Birthday to Kedmon Mapana! We’re asking for donations to Chamwino Connect, a nonprofit that supports cultural sustainability in Tanzania though music, the arts and education. Click on the link https://www.chamwinoconnect.org to donate. Thank you!

Founder of the Cigogo Festival of Music and Dance, Kedmon Mapana was born and raised in the small Tanzanian village of Chamwino. He learned Gogo traditional music from his father, made his way to university studies in music, earned BA, MA, and PhD degrees in music education and ethnomusicology, and is now Executive Secretary of the National Arts Council of Tanzania. Kedmon founded the Chamwino Arts Center (CAC) as a means of sustaining Gogo music through education and community projects, and it's his vision to see that Tanzania's Gogo traditions are kept alive and well.

A donation here will support the Center and its projects, including the Cigogo Festival of Music scheduled for July 19-21. Please join us in supporting the Festival, CAC, and Kedmon's vision!

Thinking of a journey to East Africa, and the wonderland that is Tanzania? Add to your visits to the Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and Zanzibar, this cultural festival: the 15th Annual Cigogo Festival on July 19-20 2024. The people of Chamwino village, central Tanzania, are gathering now in in preparation for the festival, and are composing this year's "mass song", the song that will be sung and danced in the village all through the festival. The festival is unforgettable for its round-the-clock participatory musicking, and is wide open to one and all. See details of the festival at https://www.chamwinoconnect.org. (Also, note that donations to the Chamwino Connect will help defray costs for the meals and transport of musicians and dancers from distant villages to the central village of Chamwino, Tanzania.)