Teaching-learning Processes in Muziki wa Injili in Dar es Salaam

Abstract

This article is concerned with teaching-learning processes in Muziki wa Injili (Gospel Music) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It discusses two methods of teaching and learning that are commonly used in Muziki wa Injili, namely, imitation and peer-directed learning. The teaching-learning processes involving members of groups of Muziki wa Injili, and children who are not members of these groups, are informal in that they do not take place in a formally organized music classroom. Informal methods such as those found in most traditional music cultures in Tanzania and in many other oral music cultures are used. I argue that the adoption of methods from traditional music contexts into this contemporary music geme is made possible (and even necessary) by the fact that Muziki wa Injili, like many other popular music genres, is an oral music culture. This transference is also possible because some members of groups of Muziki wa Injili acquired their music skills in traditional music contexts where aural/oral teaching and learning by imitation is the norm. The title of this article intentionally evokes Lucy Green's book, How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education (2002). In it Green discusses a number of teaching and learning methods used by popular musicians in the UK, including peer-directed learning and imitation (also used in Muziki wa Injili) and advocates the adoption of these methods in formal music schools.