Ziza Bafana

A reggae singer by the names Ziza Bafana surely needs no introduction, especially if you live in Uganda.

He has had quite a good year musically and it looks like he is willing to do anything to stay relevant. You know how these streets can swallow and spit you within a blink of an eye. He talked to us;

I am introducing the name of my new music style to the public.  It is called JONGO.

Jongo, also known as caxambu or tambu, is a dance and musical genre of black communities from southeast Brazil.

It originated from the dances performed by slaves, who worked at coffee plantations in the Paraíba valley, between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and also at farms in some areas of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo.

Jongo is a member of a larger group of Afro-Brazilian dances, such as batuque, tambor de crioula, and zambê, which feature many elements in common, including the use of fire-tuned drums, the call-and-response form of group singing, the poetical language used in the songs and the umbigada, a distinctive step where two dancers hit their bellies.

These elements suggest strong ties with the cultural practices of Bantu speaking peoples of central and southern Africa, especially Congo, Angola and Mozambique, from where came most of the slaves who worked in the farms in southeast Brazil.

Do you think the Jongo will work? Over to you Ugandans.