Tanzanian Hip-hop Music
Speaker: Shani Omari (contact: shaniom@yahoo.co.uk )

Shani Omari is a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at U. C. Berkeley from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. She is researching Swahili hip-hop for her Ph.D. and will walk us through some examples of how hip-hop has been adapted by Tanzanian musicians and rappers. Our focus will be on the lyrics and social context of the music in Africa.

Shani Omari (right)

Bongo Flava (BF)

• (U)bongo in Swahili language means "brain," it is also used to mean "Dar es Salaam" or "Tanzania"
• BF: new music styles, new fusions and new flavors. The artists put various spices and ingredients in their music and to add new flavor.
• Formerly bongo flava was conceived as Swahili hip hop music only, but now it embraces other youth popular music genres such as R ‘n’ B, zouk, dance hall, raga, etc which are sung mostly in Swahili with various flavors.
• Nowadays, instead of imitating or singing in English, artists sing in Kiswahili and vernacular local languages fusing with traditional dances and other styles (kwaito, bhangra, etc).

Online background, audio and video clips:

• http://groups.msn.com/zanzibarwebsite/yourwebpage.msnw
• http://www.kwetuentertainment.com/state/state.htm
• http://ngome.com/bongoflava.html
• http://www.mfalme.com/burudani.html
• http://www.africanhiphop.com/crew/tanzania.htm

Africanhiphop.com - This site, originally called 'Rumba-Kali Home of Pan African Hip Hop' was initiated in February 1997 as a platform for information and discussion on hip-hop from the African continent.
http://www.africanhiphop.com/

Spoof of rap to academic language translation on Urban Legends site: http://www.snopes.com/politics/humor/raplyrics.asp

Books:

Tony Mitchell, ed. Global Noise: Rap and Hip-hop Outside The USA. Wesleyan University Press, 2001.

Patrick Neate. Where You're At: Notes From The Frontline Of A Hip-hop Planet. NY: Riverhead Books, 2003. (rpt 2004).

• Thinking Musically
• Korean Music
• Indian music
• Arab music
• Chinese music

ORIAS Working Groups are established to provide professional development support for K-14 teachers with shared interests in international studies. The working groups provide teachers with the opportunity to extend their content knowledge by participating in seminars with University scholars; meeting with colleagues to share resources and experiences; and working independently or collaboratively on classroom materials with ORIAS staff.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS) and the Bay Area Global Education Program (BAGEP) at the World Affairs Council of Northern California.

For further information contact Michele Delattre at ORIAS: 510-643-0868 or orias@berkeley.edu