The Bongo Flava industry in Tanzania and artists' strategies for success

Abstract

Bongo Flava is a Tanzanian category of contemporary urban youth music related to four simultaneous devel‐ opments: democratization, privatization, globalization and media digitalization. Stylistically, it comprises Hip‐ hop and R&B as well as other styles which have been appropriated by local artists who rap or sing mostly in Swahili. This article explores this cultural phenomenon in the context of social upward mobility. From its very beginning, Bongo Flava has been regarded as a mouthpiece for the youth and the ordinary people. At the same time it has always been seen as a means to escape poverty and to achieve a better life. The narrative of the meteoric rise is derived from American Hip Hop imagination, as well as from local success stories. However, there are many players in the field of Bongo Flava with whom the aspiring artists have to cope. These include studios, producers, distributors, radio presenters, the press, the audience etc., but also their fellow artists from other crews and formations. This article looks at the social side of Bongo Flava, the bonds that are built, devel‐ oped, or, eventually, broken up, as well as larger networks that exist between the artists and other players in the field, and the ways the artists use them for their goal of making their way up. It also examines how the