Mziki

Before all the heavy stuff we're supposedly going to post about eventually, I wanted to share some things that we learned while we were in Tanzania.

Music is a big part of the culture, whether it is traditional music or more modern music. I would try to say more about Bongo Flava, but honestly, I'm no expert. We heard it all over the place and of course, we're now hooked. So the magical YouTube has enabled me to find many of these songs and the music videos (I didn't even know they existed!).

So behold, the magical YouTube powers and enjoy this amazing music.

(Side note: a few are not from TZ. P-Square is a Nigerian hip-hop group whose music is mostly in English)

This first one is by a group called Nako2Nako. It is based in Arusha, TZ, the town in which we spent all of our weekends. Many of the street kids that we worked with admire these guys - with good reason. They even have a myspace! http://www.myspace.com/nako2nako however, none of their music is on the page...but they do have a more comprehensive background on them there.

This next song is called Bado Nipo Nipo. The song doesn't really start until 38 seconds into the song and I'm not too sure why, but it is super catchy. You may find yourself singing the three words you can understand for the rest of the day. "Bado Nipo" literally translates to I'm not there yet. If only there were translated lyrics online!

This one is one of Michael's favorites! Ignore the long beep at the beginning. I don't know if it's stylistic or a fluke, but the song then starts. For the longest time, I thought the song was saying "habari nokio" but turns out the song says and is called "Habari Ndio Hiyo," but sounds more like "habari nohio" because of the slurring of ndio and hiyo. It means: That's the news! If you're sick of these videos already, don't give up on the later ones! Just come back later and check them out. I miss them dearly.
 

This next one is one of my favorites. And as I did with many of the other songs, I was mistaken on the words of this one as well. The song is called Una and is by P-unit & DNA. The chorus which says: Una jump, unaruka, una shida, zina shuka, means - You jump (English), you jump, you have problems, they fall off.

As you can see, this song is big since it's being played on MTVAfrica. The video is of higher quality and clearly P-Square has a larger budget. However, no music set from my trip is complete without this song called Do Me. Enjoy.