AIRS 3rd Annual Meeting: 2011 Title: Traditional Children's Songs of the Wagogo of Central Tanzania Authors: Kedmon Mapana (Seattle Pacific University) Abstract Introduction: The Wagogo people of central Tanzania are a Bantu ethnic group living in rural, pastoral and agricultural communities about 300 miles inland from the Indian Ocean. Most of the children's songs among the Wagogo people are naturally acquired from an enculturation process by which songs are “learned but not taught” (Rice, 1994). As a field researcher with an ethno musicological perspective, I was graciously accepted by the village community to examine songs of Wagogo children of Chamwino, a village about 300 miles from the capitol city of Dar es Salaam. Method: Using observation, participant observation, and video: and audio-documentation, data were gathered from 150 children, ages 4 to 12. Results: Most of the children's songs of the Wagogo people are sung in unison, unaccompanied, and call and response is a formal characteristic of the songs. The focus on singing is a priority for AIRS, but, for the Wagogo children, movement and dance are not separated from the singing. Consistently featured dance movements include the limbs, head and torso. Topics such as family needs, moral issues and birds are evident in the song texts. Also, most of the songs were spoken instead of sung, the use of three to four pitches was common and most of the songs were familiar to me. Discussion: There is concern about the disappearance of Wagogo children's songs in Chamwino, and of their wholesale abandonment by communities. The Wagogo people, along with many other groups of people in Tanzania, are being swept into more contemporary musical trends to the extent that some are abandoning their interests in long-standing traditional music and dance forms. Based upon my findings in this research project, I recommend the following: 1) AIRS should make these recorded songs available to singers, choir directors, and teachers on the AIRS website, but also to the Wagogo of Dodoma, Tanzania. 2) More research and documentation are needed among the Wagogo people before more of the children's songs are swept away by popular culture. Note that this research was accomplished only in Chamwino village, however, I did not get many songs in this village, and then I had to travel to Kawawa village (approximately 30 miles North from Chamwino).