Project #2
Music, Memory and Identity
The Thambwé School (Angola) is not just a place of music—it’s a living archive where ancestral knowledge survives. HUMANSDID aims to prevent the extinction of the Kisanji musical tradition, preserving its cultural significance in Angola.
The Thambwé School of Traditional Music is the place where Angolan culture is kept alive. It was founded in 2022, based at the Dundo Museum (Angola), thanks to the collaboration of Procultura, the European Union, the Camões Institute, the Spanish Embassy in Angola, Open Earth Foundation and the scientific support of the CSIC.
The school was established to train new generations in the musical expressions of the Cokwe culture. Students learn singing, percussion, and dance—keeping alive the heartbeat of a tradition shared through movement within the community itself. In the same space, the kisanji is also preserved: an intimate, ancestral instrument whose unwritten musical legacy will only survive as long as it continues to be played. As a guardian of a musical repertoire at risk of disappearing, the school currently teaches 60 students and provides employment to 6 local instructors.
A cultural resistance that HUMANSDID supports.
Since in August 2025, the project has lost its direct funding. With its infrastructure already in place —including instruments and trained faculty— it now needs allies who can sustain it, expand its visibility, and connect it with as many people as possible.
97% of our community voted in favor of supporting this initiative, making it possible for HUMANSDID to collaborate in funding the Thambwé Traditional Music School.
Where music keeps memory alive.
To address the threat of extinction facing the kisanji and other traditional instruments, a second school was created alongside the main project in the village of Cambuaji (Lunda Norte). There, the region’s finest artisans teach younger generations the craft of instrument making, preserving the ancestral techniques of Cokwe musical craftsmanship. This initiative prevents the knowledge from vanishing with the elder generations and offers the community a sustainable livelihood by producing instruments for both the school and other local cultural initiatives.
The Kisanji is an ancestral musical instrument that keeps a culture alive—thousands of kilometers from where you’re reading this. Thambwé is not just an artistic project; it is a living archive. A cultural resistance that HUMANSDID seeks to support.
The igniter behind it all is David López, a musicologist and composer who has dedicated his work to preserving Angola’s sonic heritage from within.
Why should you vote?
This doesn’t commit you to anything. But it could change everything…
Among those who voted for HUMANSDID Project #2: “Music, Memory & Identity”, we held a draw for two passes to attend PRIMAVERA SOUND 2026.
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