Workshop
Hands on skin, and the first shared pulse.
Forty-five minutes inside the circle. A call, an answer, a simple step, and the harvest story a rhythm has always carried.
45 minutes · All ages · Drums provided
Enter the workshop
Photograph 1 of 5: A line of dancers, held in silhouette
Kizimkazi, ZanzibarEst. 2025Assalam Community Foundation
SAWAEnsemble
Storytelling. Arts. Wonders of Africa.
Culture does not survive by being stored. It survives when it is played, taught, and handed on — drum to hand, story to room, coast to world.
SAWA means
- S — Storytelling
- A — Arts
- W — Wonders of
- A — Africa
01 / 05A line of dancers, held in silhouette
01Our services
Three ways SAWA enters a room.
Every format begins the same way — in a circle, with a pulse — then opens outward for schools, stages, festivals, retreats, and community gatherings.
Musical Theatre
Story staged in shadow, cloth, and drum.
Music, movement, ritual and theatre folded into one language — a performance you sit inside rather than watch from a distance.
Full ensemble · Staged work · Touring format
Request the theatreMusic Concerts
Full ensemble sound for stages and gatherings.
Duuf, ngoma, oud, brass and collective voice, shaped for festivals, courtyards, schools and coastal evenings.
Festivals · Ceremonies · Community stages
See concert formats02The ensemble
Not performance. Presence.
SAWA Ensemble gathers music, theatre, dance, ritual and traditional knowledge into one shared space. Rooted on the Zanzibar coast and open to the wider African creative spirit, it makes moments where the audience and the players inhabit the same story at the same time.
African creativity is not a memory. It is a living force — carried in drum, cloth, clay, voice, and the room that answers back.
03Artists
The circle that carries it.
Musicians, storytellers, dancers, teachers, makers and mentors — eight people, one shared breath.
04Community and learning
If it is shared, it survives.
SAWA is an ensemble and a learning space at once. Workshops are not an appendix to the work — they are how the work stays alive.
Clay, bead, palm, cloth, story and drum are pathways — for visitors, for schools, and for the community that lives beside them.
- 01Traditional dance
- 02Drumming
- 03Pottery
- 04Eco-printing
- 05Makuti weaving
- 06Bracelet making
- 07Painting
- 08Storytelling
- 09Music training
05Performances
Where SAWA plays next.
Dates forthcoming
SAWA Live: Rhythms of Presence
A gathering of drum, voice, movement, storytelling, and devotional atmosphere, shaped as one continuous arc.
Kizimkazi, ZanzibarDate to be announced
Booking open
Festival booking window
SAWA is available for festivals, cultural programmes, retreats, and curated performance evenings.
Zanzibar and international stages2026 season
Ongoing
Community learning circle
A shared space for rhythm, movement, craft, and intergenerational learning inside the Foundation.
Assalam Community Foundation, KizimkaziMonthly
06Gallery
Hands, faces, cloth, light.
Photographs from the stage, the rehearsal room, and the quiet minutes before the first drum.
Book the circle
Bring SAWA into your stage, school, festival, or courtyard.
Every booking starts as a conversation. Tell us the room, the date, and what you hope people will carry home.