Bongo Flava
Bongo flava is Tanzanian hip hop, with fast flowing rhythms and rhymes in Swahili, set against catchy melodies. Ubongo means brain in Swahili but it’s also a slang word for Dar es Salaam. Survival there is based on street smarts and quick wits; you have to use your brain to succeed.

Bongo flava evolved, combining elements of American rap, R&B, hip hop and even Indian music, jazz and salsa, with a unique Swahili twist. As much as American street culture is admired in Tanzania, with hand painted images of celebrities staring out at you from beauty salons and shops, bongo flava is its own animal.

The lyrics are sharp and incisive, sometimes politicised, about HIV, poverty and corruption, or about life, relationships, money, jealously and love. Groups often come up with their own dance routines, transmitted on grainy home made videos shown on Tanzanian cable television and copied in clubs around the country.

The bongo flava scene focuses around Dar es Salaam, with many artists collaborating together in groups and on different projects. MCs and vocalists work together, combining rap and R ‘n B, creating songs that stay in your head all day.  Popularity for the music is constantly growing, with some artists touring across Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, where the common language and love for music brings more and more people into the fold.

Download the clips of Juma Nature, for an insight into bongo flava. His concerts are always fun and high energy with the crowd singing and dancing along.

Juma Nature performs on Sunday 11th February at the Old Fort and the party will go on to dawn.


Ngoma
Ngoma means drum in Swahili but it’s also the name for traditional dance in Tanzania. Ngoma is a celebration of life and culture. Each tribe in Tanzania has its own style of ngoma, complete with songs, costumes and drumming. There’s something powerful about watching a group of people sing and dance in perfect time to the ngoma drum that sends shivers down your spine.

Ngomas accompany celebrations and rites of passage. Unyago is a tradition in Zanzibar, an initiation ritual for young women about to be married, to instruct them on how to please their husbands. Bi Kidude often performs unyago, playing with two other drummers to accompany a host of dancers, singing songs to teach the facts of life.

Don’t miss Amani Drummers for a taste of ngoma and a stunning visual spectacle. Saturday 10th February, 5:50pm.


Taarab
The word taarab comes from the Arabic word, tariba, meaning to be moved or agitated and if you visit a concert where Omar Kopa performing, you’ll understand why. Taarab is a fusion of musical styles, combining African percussion with Egyptian style strings. Legend has it that in the 1870s, Sultan Bargash sent a Zanzibari to Cairo to learn to play the qanun, a kind of zither common to the Arab- speaking world. The musician returned, inspired by the sounds he heard and a new musical tradition was born. Besides the qanun (zither) other instruments that came to feature in the taarab orchestras include the oud (Arabic lute), violins, ney, accordion, cello and a variety of percussion. Taarab is traditionally played at weddings, with long lines of guests swaying rhythmically around the open air dance floor, their hands aloft as they wave banknotes in the air. Money, in the form of small notes, is often placed in front of Taarab performers or even stuffed into their clothes as a token of appreciation by enthusiastic fans.

Sanaa Taarab on Friday 9th at 11:15pm provides a taste of modern taarab. Don’t miss Culture Musical Club on Tuesday 13th at CMC clubhouse at 8:15pm for a slice of classic taarab. Bi Kidude, the taarab doyenne, performs on Sunday at the Old Fort at 7:00pm.