Films

Tanzanian rhumba band, Mlimani Park Orchestra (aka Sikinde), performs in the music genre musiki wa dansi (literally, “music for dancing”), a variation of the Cuban-based rumba idiom that has been impactful throughout central, eastern, and western Africa for the past eighty years. Only a handful of significant musiki wa dansi bands operate in Dar es Salaam today, and those left compete with each other in long-standing, public rivalries. Edited with a musician’s timing, the film comprises rehearsal and performance footage, archival stills, and interviews with significant current and former band members, as well as fans, producers and engineers, managers, media personalities (Rajab Zomboko), and political figures, including (his Excellency) Jakaya Kikwete, former President of Tanzania. Twelve themed vignettes about the workings of the group and its struggle for marketplace relevance in the twenty-first century, document a vital, still-living, music performance