Swahili songs and music

Abstract

The author has been collecting Swahili songs since 1959, and has published some of them in a dozen articles. Apart from the oral traditions, there are also many written poems in Swahili which can be sung to their own traditional tunes. At least ten different types of dances are distinguished, each with its own typical songs and often with special drums used only for one dance. Obviously only some aspects of these varieties can be discussed. Wedding songs, the most prominent category, are first described and exemplified. Next come the other dance songs. Some specimens of melodies are given in the next section. Many songs allude to events of the past and present, so they can only be understood in the context of the socio-political situation of the day. The prosodic metre (as opposed to the musical metre) of Swahili songs is discussed next. Some literature on the subject is given. Finally the Swahili musical instruments are listed.