I just discovered something beautiful. There are two kinds of “GoGo.” One was born in Washington, DC. One comes from Tanzania. And somehow
I just discovered something beautiful.
There are two kinds of “GoGo.”
One was born in Washington, DC.
One comes from Tanzania.
And somehow, both are rooted in survival.
Many of us Black Americans know DC Go-Go.
Chuck Brown. The Godfather of Go-Go resting in percussive power right now.
The sound of neighborhoods.
Percussion.
Movement.
People gathering.
A beat that refuses to quit. It hit us in all the right places as we were growing up.
A Black American rhythm built to keep moving.
But in Tanzania, there is another kind, one that I am personally just discovering.
Gogo music.
The music of the Wagogo people.
In Tanzania, “Gogo” comes from the Wagogo people.
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They are an ethnic group from central Tanzania (Dodoma region)
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Their music is ancient, communal, and spiritual
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It includes:
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Polyphonic singing (layered voices moving together)
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Illimba (thumb piano)
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Ngoma drums
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Chizeze (fiddle-like instrument)
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And I want to tell you about two women carrying it forward.
Meet the Zawose Queens.
Pendo Zawose and Leah Zawose.
Daughter and granddaughter of a musical lineage that stretches through family, memory, and land.
They sing with voices that do not compete.
They hold each other.
Their sound feels ancient and alive at the same time.
Voices layered like women standing shoulder to shoulder.
Not fighting for the spotlight.
Building something together.
There are drums. Thumb pianos. A fiddle that almost sounds like memory speaking.
The music feels close to the earth. Like wind knows it.
Like ancestors would recognize it.
And suddenly I found myself thinking:
Sometimes resilience does not look loud.
Sometimes resilience sounds like women quietly carrying what could have been lost.
Breath after breath. Song after song. Generation after generation.
There is something deeply healing about watching women preserve beauty in a world that often rewards forgetting.
Especially Black women.
Especially women whose wisdom is inherited and hard-earned.
Also… can we pause for a second and appreciate this?
There are two GoGo traditions in the world.
DC Go-Go:
Keep dancing.
Keep moving.
Keep the people together.
Created in the 1970s by Chuck Brown
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Rooted in:
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Funk
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Black church call-and-response
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Street culture and live performance energy
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Key elements:
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Heavy percussion (congas, timbales)
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Continuous groove (no breaks between songs)
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Audience participation is part of the music
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This is a Black American innovation, born in DC neighborhoods.
Tanzanian Gogo:
Keep remembering.
Keep singing.
Keep the lineage alive.
Different roads.
Same sacred refusal:
We are still here.
And maybe that is why this touched me so deeply.
Because some of us know what it feels like to carry songs, stories, values, warnings, tenderness, boundaries, and memory when the world acts like forgetting would be easier.
Thank you, Chuck Brown for singing about needing money in a lighthearted and unforgettable way. “We Need Some Money.“
Joy even in our recognition of critical need.
Thank you, Zawose Queens. For reminding us that survival can sound beautiful too.
#SurvivorAffirmations #BlackDiaspora #WomenWhoCarry #HealingSounds #WeAreStillHere