Chakacha is a traditional music and dance style (a ''ngoma'') of the

Swahili people The Swahili people ( sw, WaSwahili) comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, ...

of coastal

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

, originally associated with

wedding A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage ...

s and performed and watched by women. In the late 20th century, musical groups such as

Mombasa Roots Mombasa Roots (or Mombasa Roots Band) are a Kenyan afropop/hotel pop musical group. They have recorded some of the most successful hit singles in Kenyan pop music, such as ''Disco Chakacha'' and ''Kata''. Their most famous album is '' Lele Mama' ...

Safari Sound Band Safari Sound Band is a Kenyan hotel pop band. In over twenty years of activity, they were certified platinum four times, and their recordings of Swahili classics such as "Jambo Bwana" (published with title "Jambo, Jambo") and "Malaika" are well-k ...

and Them Mushrooms have adapted this style to

afropop African popular music (also styled Afropop, Afro-pop or Afro pop), like Music of Africa, African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with western popular music. M ...

music. The women dress in very light, transparent clothing and have a belt around their waists for ease of movement. Tanzanian ladies, especially around the coastal areas, are very good at this dance. It is also somewhat associated with Taarab, another type of music style adapted in the coast and mainly performed by women. A very popular coastal tradition, with Arabic poetry, taarab has been used as a sarcastic way of delivering a message across. The hip-swaying dance movements of Chakacha also bear some resemblance with both

Congolese Congolese or Kongolese may refer to: African peoples * Congolese people (disambiguation) * Kongo people, a Bantu ethnic group who live along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire (Republic of Congo) to Luanda, Angola, primarily defined by ...

soukous Soukous (from French '' secousse'', "shock, jolt, jerk") is a genre of dance music from Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It derived from Congolese rumba in the 1960s, becoming known for its fast dance rhythms and intricate guitar improv ...

dances and

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

ern

belly dance Belly dance (Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدي, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that originates in Egypt. It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different f ...

References

African dances Kenyan culture {{Africa-music-stub