MwanaFA [real name Hamis Mwinjuma] is, without a doubt, one of the
most successfully and respected Bongo Hip-Hop artist in Tanzania, across
East Africa and certainly beyond those borders. If that statement made
your eyebrows tilt even a bit, I’d suggest you take one step back and
think a little.
His lyrics and songs have inspired new words, idioms etc into the
street and classroom dictionaries and thesauruses of Swahili. The
grandness of his lyrical abilities staggers even me who was once upon a
time considered by my peers and schoolmates to be a walking Swahili
dictionary. He can rhyme quickly, confidently and cleanly while making
sense of every word that come out of his mouth.
Recently I approached him with an idea I have wrestled with for a
while. How about re-releasing some of the biggest hits from the time
when Bongo Fleva/ Bongo Hip-Hop was starting to see the white-blue sky.
The motivation is to flaunt the standards of the past and give
today’s generation a renewed chance to hear not only the “old school”
stuff all over again but to gain a hindsight of the stories behind. He
didn’t hesitate even for a second. He agreed and here we are. Let’s Go!
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Like a ship starting a long journey across the world, in 2000s what
we now know as Bongo Fleva/Bongo Hip-Hop had just left the harbor. Its
destination wasn’t known. Regardless, some bold minded fellas had
decided to slow down the Congolese music influx that had dominated
Tanzania’s music scene for years. The likes of Sikinde and Msondo had
also lost their mojo among younger audience. The youth needed something
different to entertain themselves and make one of those postcard-perfect
days.
Tanzania’s youth, like many youth across the globe, had also failed
to resist a time capsule of American culture. American Rappers/ Artists
etc were becoming more popular among Tanzania’s youth than their own
President. Times were changing…and changing at high speed. President
Mwinyi had allowed the influx of foreign culture. The country became an
opportunity society.
For the first time, people could watch television in their living
rooms. Entertainment channels like MTV, BET, and CFI etc were now
accessible at the comfort of an arm length holding remote controls.
Those are the days when it was cool to walk around holding James Hardley
Chase novels, magazines such as Ebony, Yo Rap etc with video cassettes
tapes for movies that we hardly understood.
As the new decade was getting into the groove, Hamis Mwinjuma whom we
now know as MwanaFA’s career was also starting to take shape. It wasn’t
an easy. He was a struggling artist. He was broke. The penetrating
tropical sun of cities such as Dar-es-salaam was unleashing its ultimate
“burning” power even in his pockets. His only wealth, was his
songwriting abilities, vision and confidence that he was/is a good
songwriter and therefore his breakthrough was on the way.
He had chosen a difficult-to-cope with stage name. Mwanafalsafa [A
Philosopher] had to act like one. He had to write like one. I am sure
the pressure of living his name was as high as the feeling you get from
the first attempt to jump out of plane [in a parachute]. He spent
countless hours writing and contemplating. There were many days of gray
unrest and discontent. He was eager to establish a pattern of excellence
as far as Bongo Fleva/Bongo Hip Hop was concerned.
His breakthrough came in 2002. Towards end of 2001, upon reflections,
writing, deleting, editing etc, and fusing of intelligence and
imagination, MwanaFA had penned down Ingekuwa Vipi. He clearly remembers
where he was when he started writing Ingekuwa Vipi, “I was at
home. As you can imagine, I was broke and trying hard to figure out how
to move forward. I used to stay home a lot at that time. It was the
safest place to be”, he tells me with a broad smile that never existed
during those trying times.
It occurred that as soon as he had almost finished writing it, Jay Moe
[who was to be featured on the track, popped in for a quick visit.
MwanaFA let him listen to the lyrics while boom boxing their hands. The
lyrics blew his mind. He wanted to be part of it. Success begins with a
great idea. Jay Moe saw this as a great idea. It was.
What followed was going to Mawingu Studio to meet
DJ/Producer Bonny Luv. At that time, Tanzania had very few established
producers let alone studios. His choices were limited. Lucky for him, he
had recorded some other tracks before with Bonny Luv. It wasn’t
difficult to convince him to take on the project and that Jay Moe was
going to be featured. Bonny understood and loved the lyrics as well.
Now, contrary to what many people believe today, Ingekuwa Vipi was
not MwanaFA’s first studio recorded song. He had done it before. He just
hadn’t penetrated the airwaves the way he did with this one. Ingekuwa
Vipi was the first song he released on the radio. He had recorded 4
songs before.
He, therefore, had to hide the nerves inside with frequent smiles as
he spent countless hours with Bonny Luv perfecting what would turn out
to be his “breakthrough” song. He watched the clock as it edged toward
“freedom”.
“We recorded and left Bonny Luv to mix etc”, He tells me as I
attentively admire his recollections of events and struggles that he had
to go through before “making it”
Those were no days like today. Softwares and technologies weren’t
like today where you can e-mail the song to thousands or even million
people in a second. Clouds FM was one the few radio stations championing
most of grassroots movement of Bongo Fleva/Bongo Hip-Hop. Radio One was
another entity but was more selective of what went into air etc.
MwanaFA had to take to the radio stations the CD with hand-written
[using marker pen] “Ingekuwa Vipi” on top.
On 2nd February 2002, Ingekuwa Vipi premiered during Bongo Fleva
session, which was hosted by DJ Steve B. On the same day, MwanaFA
remembers, Balozi Dolla Soul, Inspekta Haruni and Luteni Kalama and Imam
Abbas had dropped their singles. Before the end of that session,
Ingekuwa Vipi had captured the airwaves not once but twice.
He says, “Jeff, I felt like I had just inhaled the cleanest, crispest
air I have ever breathed” In the first week since its release, Ijumaa
newspaper reported that Ingekuwa Vipi had played 72 times in different
radio stations. A record. To him, salvation was getting through the day.
Success in the airwaves meant Mwanafalsafa was now becoming popular
but also with an opportunity to make money. He remembers his first show
was for Embassy and was coordinated by Jimmy Kabwe, a veteran DJ who has recently re-joined Clouds Media Group
after years of roaming in other stations. The event was held at The
Leaders Club. He pocketed TZS 50,000/=. That was a lot of money then. He
took the smile to the bank. The wind was suddenly sweet. The sun was
warm over the country flowers. Life was getting better and sweeter.
His success was almost cut short though. The group Walume Ndago decided
to challenge his song. It was almost an underground battle of Nine
Miles. They released a counter titled Ingekuwa Poa [It’d be Just
Alright]
When I asked Mwanafalsafa how did the counter song sink with him, he
calmly said, “Not very well Jeff. See, at that time I was a newcomer
into the game. I had no experience at all of being “crucified” like
that. I thought was a huge injustice towards me”.
Lucky for him, someone else defended him. Another group released a
counter over Walume Ndago’s counter. That neutralized the whole
experience. MwanaFA had started his long journey into stardom. He had
broken out of the lineup. Here is your chance to Listen And Download Ingekuwa Vipi.
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