In every kind of music, the hosho must not be left out. It is like lighting a small candle in your house. In response, everyone will say, “Ah, there is the flame that lights our way.” They say, “Oh, that one, who is holding the light, he is the one who will lead us until we arrive where we are going.”
Just like they used to do long ago at Chirorodziva. When they first started going into Chirorodziva, they would go with a box of six matches. You would light one, and it would go out. Lighting one stick at a time, until the box is empty. That is how you progressed. And that is how they figured out what things were like inside. Then they decided to install electricity. But they had to ask permission to install electricity, because it was not allowed inside. And in the farthest reaches, there shouldn’t be electricity.
There are some people who just dance even though they don’t understand ngoma rhythms. But, if you add hosho and makwa that person will be able to dance, and he will dance listening to the rhythm of the makwa and hosho together with the ngoma. Even the drummer will know that he is depending on the assistance of the makwa and hosho. Because ngoma has so many beats that you won’t know which one your leg comes in one.
So the hosho player, now, he is the one who reads all the beats, he is the one who holds all of the beats. He is the one who makes you dance. You see? Because you don’t dance the same as the ngoma. But, you have your own beat, that you dance to.
On ngoma, there are also particular drums that help you to dance, like that drum called mutumba. It also enables you to get into the beat for dancing. Because those small drums have far too many many changes that happen. So, as you are listening, you listen to the big drum. But if you are a knowledgeable drummer, an able ngoma player, you can get into the beat of the small drums, because you are a ngoma player. You know, “This is my beat to start on, this is how I begin. This is where my leg comes into this dancing.”
Now, if we take only those people who are playing the small drums, people will take a long time to dance if there are no hosho. Because they can’t get into the right beat. But if someone who plays drums comes by, he will be able to dance, because he knows where the beat begins.
