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Imani Sanga

Professor

College of Humanities

Creative Arts

Biography

Imani Sanga (PhD, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) is Professor of Music at the University of Dar es Salaam. His research work in the areas of popular music, aesthetics, postcolonial studies, music in Swahili literature and the music of Tanzania has been published in leading international journals in the fields of Ethnomusicology, Popular Music Studies, African Studies, Cultural and Literary Studies, African Music, and Postcolonial/Decolonial Studies. He is a recipient of research fellowships from African Scholars Program (2007), African Humanities Program (2009), National Humanities Center (2019-2020) and Wissenshaftskolleg zu Berlin – Institute for Advanced Study 2024-2025. He also served as Head of Department of Fine and Performing Arts in 2012-2015 and Deputy Principal College of Humanities in 2015-2016. He also serves as conductor of the University of Dar es Salaam Choir.

Research Interest

Cultural Musicology

The music of Tanzania

Music and Literature

Aesthetics

Contacts

Email:

Projects

Currently, completing to write a book provisionally entitled: "Sonic Figures, Decolonial Letters: Musical Figures, Swahili Literature and Anti-imperialist Struggles in Tanzania"

 

Also research and writing a book on Traveling Music

Publications

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2020a. Musical Figures of Enslavement and Resistance in Semzaba’s 

          Kiswahili Play Tendehogo. African Studies 79(3): 323-338.

  2. Sanga, Imani. 2020b. Musical Figuring of Dar es Salaam Urban Marginality in Mbogo‘s 

    Swahili Novel Watoto wa Maman’tilie.  Journal of Literary Studies 36(2): 67-84

  3. Sanga, Imani. 2019. Sonic Figures of Heroism and the 1891 Hehe-German War in      Mulokozi’s Novel Ngome ya Mianzi. Journal of Postcolonial Writing 55(5): 698-709.

  4. Sanga, Imani. 2018a. The Antinomies of Transgressive Gender Acts in Professor Jay’s Rap 

    Music Video “Zali la Mentali” in Tanzania. Journal of Literary Studies 34(1): 104—117.

  5. Sanga, Imani. 2018b. Musical Figures and the Figuring of Tanzania’s Social Life in the

     Poems of Kulikoyela K. Kahigi. Journal of Postcolonial Writing 54(2): 214—225

  6. Sanga, Imani. 2017a. Musical Figures and the Archiving of African Identity in Selected 

          Poems in Tanzania: Reading Mulokozi’s “Wimbo Uliosahaulika” and Kezilahabi’s 

          “Ngoma ya Kimya”. Critical Arts 31(4): 53—68.

  7. Sanga, Imani. 2017b. Antinomies of African Aesthetics and the Impulses of Aesthetic 

          Relativism: Reading P‘Bitek, Abiodun and Agawu. African Identities 15 (3): 310—323.

  8. Sanga, Imani. 2016. The Archiving of Siti Binti Saad and Her Engagement with the Music 

          Industry in Shaaban Robert’s Wasifu wa Siti Binti Saad. Eastern African Literary and 

          Cultural Studies 2 (1-2): 34—44.

  9. Sanga, Imani. 2015. Marimba and Musical Figuring of Desire and Postcolonial National 

          Identity in Semzaba’s Novel Marimba ya Majaliwa. IRASM: International Review of the 

          Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 46 (2): 401—421.

  10. Sanga, Imani. 2014. Postcolonial Archival Fever and the Musical Archiving of African 

          Identity in Selected Paintings by Elias Jengo. Journal of African Cultural Studies 26(2): 

          140—154.

  11. Sanga, Imani. 2013a. The Figuring of Postcolonial Urban Segmentarity and Marginality in 

Bongo Fleva Music in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. IRASM: International Review of the

Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 44(2): 385—405.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2013b. The Limits and Ambivalences of Postcolonial Consciousness in

     Mbunga’s Church Law and Bantu Music. Yearbook of Traditional Music 45: 125—141.

  2. Sanga, Imani. 2011a. Music and the Regulatory Regimes of Gender and Sexuality in 

            Tanzania. Journal of Popular Music and Society 34(5): 351—368.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2011b. Mzungu Kichaa and the Figuring of Identity in Bongo Fleva

 Music in Tanzania. IRASM: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of 

Music 42 (1): 189—208.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2010a. Postcolonial Cosmopolitan Music in Dar es Salaam: Dr. Remmy

     Ongala and the Traveling Sounds. African Studies Review 53(3): 61—76. 

  2. Sanga, Imani. 2010b. The Practice and Politics of Hybrid Soundscapes in Muziki wa Injili in 

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Journal of African Cultural Studies 22(2): 145—156.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2009. Teaching-learning Processes in Muziki wa Injili in Dar es Salaam. 

          African Music 8(3): 132—143.

  2. Sanga, Imani. 2008. Music and Nationalism in Tanzania: Dynamics of National Space in 

            Muziki wa Injili in Dar es Salaam. Ethnomusicology 52(1): 52—84.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2007. Gender in Church Music: Dynamics of Gendered Space in Muziki wa 

            Injili in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Journal of Popular Music Studies 19(1): 59—91.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2006a. Composition Processes in Popular Church Music in Dar es Salaam, 

            Tanzania. Ethnomusicology Forum 15(2): 247—271.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2006b. Kumpolo: Aesthetic Appreciation and Cultural Appropriation of Bird 

            Sounds in Tanzania. Folklore 117(1): 97—102.

 

BOOK CHAPTER IN AN EDITED BOOK AND ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2019a. Muziki wa Injili. In The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular               Music of the World, Volume 12 Genres: Sub-Saharan Africa. Edited by Heidi                          Carolyn Feldman, David Horn, John Shepherd and Gabrielle Kielich, pp.442-444.             New York: Bloomsbury Publishers Inc.

     

  2. Sanga, Imani. 2019b. Tanzania: History, Culture, and Geography of Music. In The SAGE      Encyclopedia of Music and Culture. Edited by Janet Sturman, pp.2148 – 2150.   California: Sage Publications.

     

  3. Sanga, Imani. 2016. Zilipendwa Music and Everyday Aesthetics on YouTube: Comments      on the Music of Mbaraka Mwinshehe and Marijani Rajab. In Music Cultures from  Eastern Africa. Edited by Imani Sanga and Mathayo Ndomondo, Pp. 38-57. Dar   es 

          Salaam: Department of Creative Arts.

 

PAPERS IN PUBLISHED CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2012. The Figuring of Music Cultures in Literary and Visual Arts of Tanzania: 

            Preliminaries and Methodological Issues. In Readings in Ethnomusicology: A Collection 

            of Papers Presented at Ethnomusicology Symposium 2012. Edited by Mitchel Strumpf.

Pp 159 —172. Dar es Salaam: Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

 

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2011. The Merging of Vatican II and Cultural Nationalism in Mbunga’s

     Church Law and Bantu Music. In Readings in Ethnomusicology: A Collection of Papers 

            Presented at Ethnomusicology Symposium 2011. Edited by Mitchel Strumpf. Pp. 35—40. 

            Dar es Salaam: Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

 

BOOK REVIEWS

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2025. Review of Andrew J. Eisenberg’s Sounds of Other Shores: The Musical

      Poetics of Identity on Kenya’s Swahili Coast (2024). Ethnomusicology Forum   

      (Forthcoming)

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2024. Review of Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik’s Maghreb Noir: The Militant-Artists

      Of North Africa and Struggle for a Pan-African, Postcolonial Future. African Studies 

      Review 67(3): 761—762.

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2019. Review of Louise Meintjes’ book (with photographs by TJ Lemon).   Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics after Apartheid. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 75(4): 683-685.
  2. Sanga, Imani. 2015. Review of Toynbee, Jason and Byron Dueck (Eds.). 2011. Migrating Music. Journal of World Popular Music 2(1): 114-118.
  3. Sanga, Imani. 2013. Review of Alex Perullo’s Live from Dar es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy. African Studies Review 56(1): 206—208.
  4. Sanga, Imani. 2011. Review of Frank Gunderson's Sukuma Labor Songs from Western Tanzania: "We Never Sleep, We Dream of Farming". African Music 9(1): 255—258.
  5. Sanga, Imani. 2010. Review of Mwenda Ntarangwi‘s East African Hip Hop: Youth Culture and Globalization. African Music 8(4): 139—141.

  6. Sanga, Imani. 2008. Review of Laura Edmondson’s Performance and Politics in Tanzania:       The Nation on Stage. African Studies Review 51(3): 211—213.

     

BOOKS

  1. Sanga, Imani. 2010. Sounds of Muziki wa Injili: Temporal and Spatial Aesthetics of  

                   Contemporary Church Music in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Saarbrűcken: LAP 

               Lambert Academic Publishing. Reviewed positively in African Music 8 (4), 2010

  1. Sanga, Imani. 1996. Nyimbo za Tanzania: Lauluja Tansaniasta [Songs from Tanzania]. 

   Helsinki: Finish-Tanzanian Friendship Society. (a songbook).

 

EDITED VOLUMES

37. 2016. Music Cultures from Eastern Africa. [Co-edited with Mathayo Ndomondo]. Dar es        Salaam: Department of Creative Arts.

38. 2013.Readings in Ethnomusicology: A Collection of Papers Presented at Ethnomusicology

              Symposium. [Co-edited with Mitchel Strumpf and Mathayo Ndomondo]. Dar es

               Salaam: Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

39. 2010.Readings in Ethnomusicology: A Collection of Papers Presented at Ethnomusicology      Symposium. [Co-edited with M. Strumpf]. Dar es Salaam: Dept. of Fine and        

               Performing Arts.