GIA Publications - Artist - Mapana, Kedmon

Kedmon Mapana is a senior lecturer of music in the Department of Creative Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam. He received a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Dar es Salaam and a PhD in education from Seattle Pacific University, where he received the President’s citation. His research and community interests include highlighting local communities throughout Tanzania and empowering young Tanzanians. Mapana is the founder of the Cigogo Music Festival, now in its twelfth year, and is one of the directors of the Chamwino Arts Centre (CAC), an NGO dedicated to cultural preservation and promotion through ngoma. The CAC began as a vision of Mapana, whose youth in Chamwino was marked by the community’s regular and enthusiastic practice of ngoma. Ngoma transmits history, values, education, and identity from the older generations to the younger and was an important and valued constant in Mapana’s life and the lives of his people, the Wagogo.