Tanzania Traditional Music Instruments Through the Eyes of an Artist

TANZANIA TRADITIONAL MUSIC INSTRUMENTS THROUGH THE EYES OF AN ARTIST

E.Jengo

The documentation of traditional music instruments of Tanzania was first attempted by the late John Nsibu, a Cultural Officer, in the then Ministry of Education and Culture in the early 1970s. In his documentation he used black and white line drawings of several music instruments that were kept in the National Museum and was published as a mimeographed pamphlet . Nsibu was a former student of the Fine and Performing Arts Department. This commendable early effort gave rise to other types of documentation such as the catalogue of indigenous music instruments of Tanzania produced for the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture that was held in Lagos, Nigeria, in February 1977. After the festival the National Museum commissioned Anneliese von Gnielinski, from the University of Munich, Germany, to write a photographic documentation of the music instruments that were displayed during the Lagos festival. This undated documentation was published as Occasional Paper No.6 of the National Museum of Tanzania .Perhaps the latest documentation of traditional music instruments was prepared by Lewis and Makala (1990) on behalf on the defunct Music Conservatoire of Tanzania.

This paper looks into the artistic documentation of Tanzanian traditional music instruments that was conceived by Sawaya, an artist-biologist with a keen interest in painting. Sawaya graduated from the University of Dar es Salaam and was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree with Education in the early 1970s. His art teachers were the late Sam Ntiro and Father Van Meer who also taught art at the Dar es Salaam Teachers College. Sawaya's sincere love for painting earned him a scholarship to France where he studied painting at Ecole des Beaux Arts et Decoratifs de Strasbourg (School of Fine Arts and Decorations of Strasbourg)