Cultural Tidbits: Bongo Flava

My parents have strange taste in music. When Dad is metal-smithing, he likes to listen to everything from Queensryche (a hair band from the 80s) to Bach Cantatas. I guess it just depends on his mood. My Mom is the same way, she listens to Bob Dylan, Italian opera, and occasionally I’ll catch her bopping her head to Snoop Dogg. It’s so weird when that happens.

So it’s normal that I enjoy listening to all kinds of music, and in my preparation for The Big Trip to Tanzania, I learned there is a style of hip hop music that’s native to Tanzania, just like Gam’s cichlids are native to Lake Tanganyika.

It’s called Bongo Flava, and it comes from Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. It is a combination of East African music styles like afrobeat and dancehall, with global hip-hop styles. The lyrics are a blend of Swahili and English, and the sound is truly unique.

Bongo Radio is an online radio station in Chicago that broadcasts Tanzania music. Click here to stream it through iTunes.

Juma Nature, shown above, is a well known Bongo Flava artist. Other artists you can check out are Professor Jay and Dully Sykes.