From ?Dancing with Porcupines? to ?Twirling a Hoe?: Musical Labor Transformed in Sukumaland, Tanzania

Abstract

In the Sukuma area of northwest Tanzania, farmer-musicians, or farmers who compose and perform music, introduce themselves in public interactions fi rst as farmers, with the phrase am a farmer, I hold a hoe, and second as performers, with the phrase am also a dancer, I twirl a hoe. Identifi cation with music operates on many psychological and cultural levels from childhood to old age, and is reinforced and expressed most cogently in their use of song during cotton farming. Cotton farming is a relatively recent chapter in Sukuma history, a result of (and creative response to) British colonial government requirements between the two world wars. A new farming class emerged, which drew on prior musical labor fraternities such as medicinal societies, hunting societies, porters, and military organizations for their personnel, musical repertory, and dance paraphernalia. The Sukuma made the imposition of long-distance migrant labor and cotton cropping their own by making these labors musical. The author discusses how Sukuma farmers developed musical farming from these prior musical labor practices, and provides several examples of this transformation.