Machini Kubwa. Group Dancing, Politics, and Modernity in Umatengo, Tanzania

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to present a historical view of Matengo musical practices with the goal of understanding how these musical practices influenced, reflected, and interacted with broader social trends. A further goal is to present an ethnographic view of contemporary and historical musical practice. Challenging standing notions of static African culture, through an investigation of genre change this work shows the dynamic nature of rural musical life. It also investigates the complex relationship between local political action, local music, and the national stage. Finally, through the various processes initiated by two colonial governments, the Roman Catholic Church, and Tanganyikan nationalists, significantly, the shift toward a modern worldview, the Wamatengo learned a new way to understand themselves and their surroundings. Much of the Matengo story is lost to patchy, contingent, and inconsistent history keeping (oral and written), but traces of these processes, and how the Wamatengo reacted to and capitalized on them, are found in musical practice.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Hill, Stephen Craig

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thomas Turino

• History, African

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3044112

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85700