Mama’ Songs – Collecting old African songs for children

Music and Arts Programs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Finland grant to Art in Tanzania has helped us to collect children’s songs as the project name ‘mamas songs’. The Mamas Songs project aims to collect traditional music, sung in tribal languages, from various areas of Tanzania, specifically lullabies and songs for children, as well as songs for special occasions and ceremonies. This website has been created so that the Tanzanian and foreign people, can hear and learn about the various aspects of their country’s musical culture and preserve musical traditions. As all of the material on this site is downloadable free of charge, we encourage people to use the resources for teaching and singing in schools.

There are around 130 tribes in Tanzania, each with its unique language, religion, and social system, although Swahili is also commonly spoken in these tribes. Songs have been collected from various tribes to display their musical and cultural differences. Some of the music shown on this site is in the form of a traditional lullaby, with the mother is singing to the child. However, some of the pieces are to be sung in larger Tanzania children’s groups (recordings may not reflect this, but where this is the case, it is noted). Although the Mama’s Songs project mainly focused on collecting lullabies and children’s songs sung by women, we have also branched out into male singers and adult songs for special events and ceremonies.

As well as traditional tribal songs, the project has also gathered Swahili children’s songs. This is different in that Swahili is Tanzania’s official language. Hence, the music collected in Swahili may be more modern and universal than the more unique tribal music.

For some of the songs, we have managed to create notation, which has not been available before due to the music’s free nature and the people’s inability to notate music. Although we have not managed to notate all of the music, some example songs are accompanied by notation. Most of the songs have also been translated into Swahili and English so that the listener can better understand the meaning of the music.

We wish to expand this website and constantly find more music. If you would like to help us please send us more songs and ideas to info@artintanzania.org