Ngika (founder of the Bagika dance society)

Sukuma · mortal · Sukuma traditional religion; continuing · mortal

Ngika was one of the two famous dancer-composers who, in the mid-nineteenth century, founded the competitive dance societies that still structure Sukuma performance. Both Ngika and his rival Gumha spent years living with traditional doctors to master powerful medicines, and because both were celebrated dancers they were set to compete to prove whose medicines were the stronger, each using his preparations to draw spectators to his own side of the dance-ground and to cast bad luck upon the other. When their supporters at last divided according to whom they judged the more powerful, Ngika became the first leader of the Bagika, the 'people of Ngika', while Gumha led the Bagalu. The two societies endure to the present day, and Sukuma dancers still affiliate with one or the other and contend against each other through the dance season.

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