Ngoma Awards
The Ngoma Award is an annual award for Zambian artists, with which the talents of the country of Zambia are honored.
The prize is awarded by the Zambian National Council for Art . It is comparable to the Pan-African Kora Awards .
Ngoma Awards are given in the following areas:
- Fine arts - 4 prizes
- Drama - 4 prizes
- Street Theater (Popular Theater) - 2 prizes
- (Traditional) music and (traditional) dance - 3 prices
- Video art - 3 prizes
- Contemporary music - 6 prizes
- Literature - 3 prizes
The focus is on music almost every year. The awards are given to the best singer, the best female singer, the best instrumental ensemble and the best choir, but sometimes also to others. It has been awarded since 1999, usually in Lusaka. Popular musicians and prominent politicians like to take the occasion to show themselves. But apart from its growing public importance and efforts to give it a more dignified setting, some people complain that the staging of the award ceremony is sometimes downright unimaginative.