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Dar es Salaam or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over six million people, Dar is the largest city in East Africa and the seventh-largest in Africa. Located on the Swahili coast, Dar es Salaam is an important economic centre and is one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.
As in other countries, the musical in Tanzania is constantly undergoing changes, and varies greatly by location, people, settings and occasion. The five music genres in Tanzania, as defined by BASATA are, ngoma, dansi, kwaya, and taarab, with bongo flava being added in 2001. Ngoma (Bantu, meaning dance, drum and event) is a traditional dance music that has always been the most widespread music in Tanzania. Dansi is a urban jazz or band music. Taarab is sung Kiswahili poetry accompanied by a band, usually primarily string, in which audience is often, but not always, encouraged to dance and clap. Kwaya is choir music originally limited to church during colonization, but now an important secular part of education, and social and political events. Bongo flava is Tanzanian pop music originally born out of muziki wa kizazi kipya, meaning "Music of the new generation" that included reggae, RnB, and hip hop, fused with local flavors but has since grown into a very distinct music of the Great Lakes regions, moving away from the western styles for more local styles. Two newer notable new influence on bongo flava is Afropop in the 2010's, and amapiano from South Africa since 2020 which bongo flava artist have eagerly taken and made into something more distantly East African. The diverse nature of widespread influences have helped make bongo flava by far the most popular music in East Africa, and one of the most popular in all of Africa.
Joseph Mbilinyi, known for his stage names Mr. II, Sugu and 2-proud, is a Tanzanian politician, human rights activist and rapper. He was also elected to the Tanzanian Parliament in 2010 and then 2015 to 2020.
Bongo Flava is a nickname for Tanzanian music. The genre developed in the 1990s, mainly as a derivative of American hip hop and traditional Tanzanian styles such as taarab and dansi, with additional influences from reggae, R&B, and afrobeats, to form a unique style of music. Lyrics are usually in Swahili or English, although increasingly there has been limited use of words from Nigerian languages due to the influence of afrobeats.
Tanzanian Hip-hop, which is sometimes called Bongo Flava by many outside of Tanzania's hip hop community, encompasses a large variety of different sounds, but it is particularly known for heavy synth riffs and an incorporation of Tanzanian pop. There is some debate over whether Bongo Flava, which has emerged as a defined pop movement, can really still be qualified under the overarching term "hip hop" and not a movement unto itself, when it is beginning to develop a distinctive sound that differs from hardcore rap or, for example, the Maasai Hip hop of X Plastaz, who use the tradition of the Maasai tribe as the focal point for their sound and style. Tanzanian hip hop influenced the sound of the Bongo Flava genre. While Tanzanian hip hop retains many of the elements found in hip hop globally in terms of sound and lyricism, Bongo flava, derived from the Swahili word "ubongo", incorporates hip hop, Indian filmi, taraab, muzik wa dansi, and dancehall beats. It all began in the 1980s when Tanzanian teenagers were really interested in the American hip hop scene. At first, they took American beats and rapped to them. As the youth rapped, the hip hop in Tanzania began to develop into a mix of traditional and localized hip hop scene. As a result, it began a wave of interest from other people in Eastern Africa.
X Plastaz is a Tanzanian hip hop musical group based in Arusha and founded in 1996. They are one of the most popular acts in the Tanzanian hip hop scene. Their style mixes elements from international hip hop and traditional Maasai music, represented by Maasai singer Merege. While Merege sings in maa, the other members of the group rap in swahili and haya. Merege is also well known to perform in traditional Maasai clothings.
Juma Nature a.k.a. Sir Nature is a Tanzanian hip hop recording artist and record producer. He is the founder and member of a Temeke group called Wanaume, an informal group of rappers from the poor side of Dar es Salaam. In his last album, "Bongo Flava: Swahili Rap from Tanzania", many of the lyrics which are in his tracks include current problems within his country. Some problems he raps about include, "HIV/AIDS, the difficulty of meeting basic needs, class and wealth barriers, and holding your head high despite everything". One of Nature's well renowned songs is "Umoja wa Tanzania" which talks about a celebration within Tanzania and the sense of unity that it has exemplified. “Utajijua” from Juma Nature's brand new album Ubin-Adam Kazi, is a song about people who like to poke their noses into others’ business.
Kwanza Unit (KU) was an early Tanzanian hip hop group. Its name means "First Unit" and it was formed in 1993 by a merger of several groups and solo artists. They started rapping in English, but later used Swahili as well.
Joseph Haule, popularly known by his stage name Professor Jay, is a Tanzanian rapper, songwriter, politician and former member of the Tanzanian parliament for Mikumi constituency. He is one of the prominent representatives of the "Bongo Flava" Tanzanian hip hop subgenre, which mixes elements from both Western hip hop and the Tanzanian tradition.
Ujamaa was a socialist ideology that formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after it gained independence from Britain in 1961.
Dully Sykes is a Tanzanian musician who sings majorly in the bongo flava genre.
Baraza la Muziki la Taifa was a national council created in 1974 by the government of the newly independent Tanzania. Its purpose was to regulate the music business in the country, in the context of a wider programme intended to create a solidified national identity. This, in turn, was a crucial element in Ujamaa, President Julius Nyerere's version of african socialism. Similar institutions were founded to rule over other aspects of the nation's culture, including the nationwide adoption of Swahili language and the development of Tanzanian art (BASATA). The overall idea was to build a new popular culture for the workers and peasants of the country, free from the heritage of colonialism and bourgeoisie culture.
Zavara Mponjika or simply MC Rhymson is a rapper from Tanzania who was the founder of the Villain Gangsters and a founding member of Kwanza Unit.
Dataz is a Tanzanian rapper. She was born in 1984 on the shores of Lake Nyasa in Mbamba Bay. Later she moved with her parents to Morogoro where she began her primary education. When Dataz was attending her secondary school, Ifunda, her talent for music became apparent.
Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam is a radio service in Tanzania.
Balozi Dola,a.k.a.Balozi or Dolasoul, is a self-proclaimed “socially conscious” hip hop artist from Tanzania.
The term "wahuni" is a Tanzanian slang term meaning "hooligans." Wahuni refers specifically to youth of the hip-hop generation of the 1990s in Tanzania. The use of such a negative terminology indicates the cultural hostility toward hip-hop within the nation.
The annual Yo Rap Bonanza, created in the early 1990s in Tanzania, was a rap talent show organized by Kim and the Boys with Ibony Moalim and was sponsored by local Indian merchants. The first show was made in 1993 and the second and last was in 1995. Kim and Ibony were key figure on this event. It is generally recognized as the first major hip-hop competition in Tanzania. The talent show attracted large crowds with its diverse and unique delivery of rhymes from different artists.
Ramazani "Remmy" Mtoro Ongala was a Tanzanian guitarist and singer. Ongala was born in Kindu near the Tanzanian border, in what was the Belgian Congo at the time, and now is the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ngoma(also ng'oma or ing'oma) is a Bantu term with many connotations that encompasses music, dance, and instruments. In Tanzania ngoma also refers to events, both significant life-changing events such as the first menstruation or the birth or passing of a loved one, as well as momentary events such as celebrations, rituals, or competitions. Ngoma was the primary form of culture throughout the Great Lakes and Southern Africa. Today it is most notable in Tanzania, where it is deemed an official music genre by the National Arts Council (BASATA - Baraza la Sanaa la Taifa). In Tanzania, it is experienced throughout the country and performed, taught, and studied in many schools and universities. The most notable school for ngoma is the Bagamoyo Arts and Cultural Institute, which produces the most prominent chairmen (directors/conductors) and dancers.
References
- 1 2 Lemelle, Sidney J. “‘Ni wapi Tunakwenda’: Hip Hop Culture and the Children of Arusha.” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 230-54. London; Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto Pres
- 1 2 Africanhiphop.com :: Motherland Hip hop :: African Rap :: 10 years online 1997 - 2007!