How Swahili poetry has shaped today’s popular music |
  ON STAGE: Juma Ubao King Makussa and his reformed Six Manyara Band By Miguel Suleyman It was hard to convince Tanzanians and the East Africans in the diaspora that Nameless’s eponymous hit, Nasinzia Nikikuwaza came from a non-Tanzanian artiste.Sung in perfect unaccented Kiswahili, the song’s lyrics carried a traditional poetic form similar to that of contemporary Bongo Flava stars. Bongo Flava is a derivative of American hip hop, with additional influences from R&B, dancehall and traditional Tanzanian styles. It is a combination that produces a unique style of music. Though music experts argue that Taarab has influenced Bongo Flava, most artistes deny it. They say Kiswahili and its unique form of poetry played a big role in distancing Bongo Flava from R&B and other American music genres. After going through various Bongo Flava works, Police Jazz keyboard expert and music analyst Adelgot Haule says he has picked out the influence of orient scale in the vocal parts of the majority of Bongo Flava artistes. In Tanzania, African residents have lived alongside both western and oriental cultures and local artistes find themselves playing bantu music fused with flavours of both the West and Oriental music. A foreign listener will be baffled to hear microtones in some of the Bongo Flava works, which experts consider be a non-bantu element. Called ghani in Kiswahili, the prolonged harmony injected in various Bongo Flava works, according to the experts, is meant to give music a bluesy feeling. In its structural form, however, it fails to get the real blues tone that normally flattens the third and fifth notes. But the influx of traditional Taarab, according to Haule, has unnoticeably injected oriental scale, popularly known as maqamat, in popular music. Says Banana Zorro, a popular Bongo Flava artiste: “No one can explain why our music has taken this shape, but I think everything should be credited to Swahili poetry that most of us use to guide our lyrics.” Bongo Flava artistes hailing from Tanga, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar are most affected with orient’s strange scales, according to the experts. Kassim Mganga ’s recent hit Usiende kwa Mganga and his eponymous Awena better explain the connection. Ally Kiba, one of the most travelled Bongo Flava artistes, says people are interested in Tanzanian music since they hear connections with popular Bantu music. “I was baffled to hear a strange bluesy vocal when Ali Kiba played Cinderella during his 2008 show in Kansas City,” says American music fan Sue Martinez, after keenly watching the young Tanzanian on stage. “I couldn’t put it as pure African.” Maqamat scales, which are quite different to Western scales have been used in most traditional poetry that, according to the veteran singer Zahir Ally Zooro, are easily understood but never mentioned in society, where music is a tradition and not a profession. “Traditional poetry is something even a child can compose,” notes Zorro. “But, to a non- Kiswahili speaker, this art might look extremely difficult.” Bongo Flava has now found a home outside the African continent and the most popular artists in the genre have recently begun to address Western markets When it was launched as Tanzania Rap, Bongo Flava was clearly related to American hip hop. Saleh Jabir, who won the first Yo Rap Bonanza, sampled Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer works to make Bongo Flava a kind of Swahili rap. A few years later, Khalid Suleiman(TID) and Lady Jay Dee managed to turn Bongo Flava into R&B with Ray C later adding an oriental flavour. Ruta Bushoke and Mr Nice also did a commendable job in shaping Bongo Flava. They joined Kenyan and Ugandan artistes to form Takeu, the dance hall raga-like music led by ‘call and response’ rhythm. “The sound has its roots in the rap, R&B and hip hop coming from America but, from the beginning, these styles have been pulled apart and put back together with African hands,” says Mike Mhagama, a radio presenter and one of the founders of term Bongo Flava. After Jabir opened the door to Tanzanian Hip Hop, Mr 11 sky-rocketed further to Bongo Flava when he released the first hit single Ni Mimi. Bongo Flava Though relaxed soulful ballads have been common since the 1940s, pioneered by the legendary Fundi Kunde, it has been widely established that, for over five decades, Tanzanian music has been slower, more relaxed and lighter than that recorded in Nairobi—the second home of Swahili music. As veteran guitarist Kassim Mapili put it during an interview with The Citizen, the country’s century-old music has been a whole experience of its own. Mapili says the influence of both oriental and western music has been widely perceived in the music but it still remains distinctively different from that of other countries with similar influence. Tanzanian music for decades has contained non-Bantu elements that are rarely found in other Bantu-dominated countries south of Sahara. The music industry in Tanzania has seen many changes in the recent years, according to Zahir Ally Zorro, but none of the new generation musicians has managed to generate something totally distanced from the old style. Oriental culture has certainly influenced music around the world, including flamenco, which is rooted in seven centuries of Muslim rule, and Renaissance music. Finally, we can say that Arabic music “moves” into maqamat, ascending and descending, following these scales. Also, it is usual for the performers to “improvise”, starting with known music and then using the respective maqam as a “pattern” to do that. That kind of improvisation is named taqsim. |
