The farmers of the Banunguli farming group from Kisessa village near Mwanza, Tanzania, build tie ridges—raised earthen mounds into which the cotton seeds are planted. In this video, the accompanying kadete (one-string fiddle) player regulates the pace of the workers and spurs them on with his sung words of encouragement.

Frank Gunderson endeavors to understand how the Sukuma people of Northwest Tanzania perceive and experience musical labor as neither exclusively music performance nor strict labor, neither work nor play, but a performed behavior retaining aspects of both.

Recorded in January 1995 by Frank Gunderson

Thanks to an inter-agency agreement between the National Endowment for the Arts and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, we are launching a pilot effort in partnership with the Society for Ethnomusicology to feature “From the Field” multi-media reports by SEM members on issues encountered during fieldwork.