The Death of Mganda?: Continuity and Transformation in Matengo Music

In the Matengo highlands of southwestern Tanzania, musical changes reflect broad economic and political changes as well as local and gendered decisions made by men and women dancers. By analyzing the important realm of group dances over the preceding century a clearer picture emerges of the frequently unintended consequences of actions and the various ways that Matengo dancers employ music in their strategies to comprehend and command the "modern." In Matengo music choices to pursue divergent goals for new performative resources led to radically different outcomes for two group-dance genres. In the one case, dancers' decisions coupled with shifting economic and political realities led to fl uorescence, and in the other, to almost certain abandonment.