Mapanya Band

The Mapanya Band is an Afropop band from Tanzania.

The seven musicians all with different backgrounds and an exciting range of musical styles, fused their great musically abilities and started the Mapanya Band in 2015. The Mapanya style is a dynamic mix of reggae, soul, R&B, Afro-fusion, Arabic and Taarab music styles, with hints of Latin and Indian music and lots of hip-hop influences. One of the special characteristics of the seven musicians’ style is the wonderful balance of their voices, everyone singing in ways they were used to from childhood in different types of Islamic singing, church hymn singing, local African traditions from Bagamoyo along the mainland at the Indian Ocean coast and from Zanzibari traditions.

Mapanya continue to evolve with NEW developments always eager to present new songs that integrate solos and individual musical ideas of each of the members of the group. The members of this talented group all sing, all drum, all play guitar AND ALL DANCE and get their audiences up off of their seats to start dancing too!

In their songs, Mapanya tell about a better Africa – a peaceful continent, rich in nature and traditions where people should help each other to fight diseases (e.g., “Malaria”), poverty and other problems of the community. They give messages to young people to believe in themselves, to trust and improve their talents to become responsible adults, and to find their way through life, e.g., “Belinda” a song about a girl who tries to escape from her home when she reaches puberty. There are also wonderful and touching love songs like “Uhondo” and “Shillingi Moja” a song of unity.

Mapanya have made significant performances during their time together including; the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2016 and 2017, the Nafasi Art Space in Dar Es Salaam in 2017, the Bagamoyo Festival of the Arts in 2017, the Sauti za Busara Festival in February 2018 and the DOADOA showcase in April 2018. During April 2018 Mapanya Band toured Switzerland for two weeks presenting workshops in schools and universities in four major cities as well as a concert series and festival performance in Bern. In February 2020 Mapanya were invited back to Sauti za Busara and gave an amazing performance with the large crowd dancing and singing along to every song.

In 2017 MAPANYA recorded a very well received and now very popular demo CD titled: “From Bagamoyo to Zanzibar”.