"Utamaduni Endelevu kupitia Elimu, Sanaa, na Muziki"
"Cultural Sustainability through Education, the Arts, and Music"

CHAMWINO CONNECT

On the Horizon:
Cigogo Festival 2026

The 17th Cigogo Music Festival is set for July 24, 25, and 26, 2026. Open to the public, this colorful festival annually draws local, national, and international visitors. The Chamwino Arts Center, located in Chamwino, Tanzania, has set a course for gathering over one thousand artists to their village. The goal of the festival is, as always, the preservation and promotion of the traditional Wagogo arts and culture, with dawn-to-dusk performances and participatory events. Festival performances will include participation by children and youth, as well as by adults (including all-women’s groups and groups of Wagogo elders), with representation of villagers from across the central Tanzanian region of the Wagogo people. Guests of honor typically include Tanzanian Members of Parliament and other dignitaries. This year’s notable guest is anticipated, too: the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, Mwigulu Nchemba, an economist, who was recently appointed by the president of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, to this influential position.

Interested in attending the 2026 Cigogo festival? You can fly to Dar es Salaam, the Tanzanian on the coast, or to Dodoma, the new capitol of Tanzania. Chamwino is just an hour from the Dodoma airport (by car, shuttle, or bus), and from Dar es Salaam, there are buses and a new high-speed train. Should you be interested in attending, you will be most welcome by the staff and board of Chamwino Arts Center. They can arrange for inexpensive lodging and meals can be taken in several small restaurants in the village. It’s quite the experience of a lifetime, and over the years, hundreds of visitors from Europe (Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK), North America (Canada, the U.S.), and Asia (Japan and Thailand) have made their way to this memorable festival.

Please be in touch with us at Chamwino Connect for further information.. For questions, please write pcamp@uw.edu (Patricia Shehan Campbell, co-chair of Chamwino Connect), who is planning to be there this coming July!

WHO WE ARE

Chamwino Connect is the 501c3 fundraising organization that supports cultural sustainability in central Tanzania through music, dance, all the arts and education.

We are driven by the wisdom of the villagers of Chamwino-Ikulu: "Utamaduni Endelevu kupitia Elimu, Sanaa na Muziki" ("Cultural Sustainability through Music, the Arts, and Education"). We understand and support the belief of the Wagogo of Chamwino, Tanzania, that their long-standing cultural heritage can be continued even as it changes with the times, and that cultural sustainability is ensured through education and engagement in artistic practice. Education in schools and out in the community can help to end poverty and empower the most vulnerable, even as artistic engagement can call people together to make something beautiful and representative of their collective identity.

In partnership with the Chamwino Arts Center (CAC), Chamwino Connect (CC) aims to enhance the lives of children and adults in the village of Chamwino Ikulu, central Tanzania. We are responding to the expressed interests and needs of Chamwino villagers for access to a culturally relevant and meaningful education, one that is both current and contemporary as well as with earnest attention to the continuation of a vibrant experience in traditional Wagogo artistic and cultural practices. Together with Chamwino Arts Center, Chamwino Connect has, since 2012, opened an early childhood learning center and provided scholarships for students to study at tuition-based secondary school and for university-level certificates and degrees. It has contributed to the educational resources for use in public schools and supplied the secondary school library with a significant supply of e-readers and hard-cover books. One of the most visible supported of the partnership is the running of an annual festival of traditional ngoma (music and dance) of the Wagogo people and their invited friends. Together, we hope to lay the foundations of learning for young children in early childhood education, to entice older students to continue their studies in secondary school (—and beyond), and to continue the education of adults through to the skills they require for employment. Of key importance is that the Wagogo of Chamwino, Tanzania, are independently choosing their pathway to the future, balancing their Wagogo traditions with their contemporary interests and needs, and celebrating their cultural heritage even as they sustain it.

All donations and gifts to Chamwino Connect are tax deductible and a receipt will be sent to donors upon donation. Chamwino Arts Center, including the Cigogo Music Festival, are depending upon donations.