"We're putting up the cornerstone for goema. In Brazil everyone plays samba. In Cuba. everyone plays salsa. It doesn't matter what colour they are or where their ancestors come from. Everyone is eventually going to be a goema musician." — Mac McKenzie

Goema is the name given to the genre of music that emerged at the Cape of Good Hope in the 1800s. It is syncretic music, meaning it is a fusion of diverse musical traditions as a result of creolisation. Similar genres are sega (Mauritius), maloya (Reunion Island), samba (Brazil) son and salsa (Cuba), calypso (Trinidad & Tobago) and zydeco (New Orleans).

 Creolisation is the process of cultural and linguistic mixing and transformation that occurs when different groupings encounter and interact with each other. Here in the Cape, it was the fusion of the music and languages of the indigenous inhabitants, enslaved or imprisoned persons and the colonising population groups.