Home to approximately 120 tribes which have been integrated into the larger Tanzanian population, most of the peoples living in Tanzania today define themselves by both their tribal and national identities. According to the Tanzanian tourist board, far from being a source of division, this diversity is a great source of pride amongst the general Tanzanian population. On this page, NTC hopes to provide monthly articles exploring different aspects of contemporary culture in Kwala. If you are curious about any specific aspect of life in Kwala, feel free to Contact Us .
Bongo Flava
(Tanzanian Hip-Hop)
Bongo Flava is a nickname for Tanzanian hip-hop music. It could be translated as “Tanzanian Flavour”. The genre, which is based out of the city of Dar es Salaam takes its name from the Swahili word ubungo, meaning “brain.” Bongo, “brains”, is the plural. The metaphor is slang for Dar es Salaam and more recently for Tanzania. In the music genre of Bongo Flava the metaphor of brains is also used to refer to the cunning and street smarts needed to survive. Bongo Flava incorporates Afrobeat and arabesque melodies, dancehall and hip hop beats, Swahili lyrics and English phrases, combining aspects of the global hip hop scene with an East African flavor to form a unique style of music.
The genre has immense popularity, reflected in the Tanzanian media outlets dedicated to the promotion of Bongo Flava. “TV and radio programs are dedicated to Bong Flava, which is also reflected in the sales figures of some of hip hop albums.” Outside of its historical home of Tanzania, Bongo Flava has become a resoundingly popular sound in neighboring countries such as Kenya. Bongo Flava has even found a home outside of the African Continent: the self-proclaimed “best internet station for Bongo Flava,” Bongo Radio, happens to be based out of Chicago, Illinois.
Students at Kwala Secondary School regularly practice and perform Bongo Flava music. The video below features a compilation of acts from a recent Bongo Flava performance by Kwala Secondary School students.
Kwala Secondary School Hip Hop Show from NTC on Vimeo.
Communal Dining
In Tanzania, there is a tradition of eating together. However, when we say eating together, it means only a single dish for each type of food which all will share. One dish of Ugali, and multiple hands, because of course, most Tanzanians do not eat with utensils. This tradition of communal dishes brings families together and also creates a culture of discipline during meal time. This is because each person eats slowly, ensuring that everybody in the family gets their fare share of food. As in most patriarchal traditions, if meat is in the dish, the first one to choose their piece of meat is the father. Next, the mother. To follow are the children, in order of age. Larger sized families will eat their meals divided by sex. Women will eat from one dish, and men will eat from another. Still, the law of age applies.
Marriage and Dowry
There was a tradition in Tanzanian in which children were not meant to choose their future spouse. Fathers would get together independent of their children to determine their fate. The children had very little say in the process, and were ultimately wedded off based on the availability of a dowry. Dowry refers to the cows paid to the girls family from the mans family. The number of cows paid to the girls family depended on the tribe. If the tribe were pastoral peoples, they were capable of paying more in cows than agricultural tribes. This tradition began in order to ensure that the girls family, who would be losing a valuable worker upon marriage, would be reimbursed for that lost work.
Today, most couples meet on their own and choose to get married. Though there is still a tradition in which parents must be informed and involved in the marriage process. Dowry is still exchanged in Tanzania, though because most people today do not keep their own cows, cash is now given. Though the Masai tribe as well as the Mang’ati tribe still maintain the tradition of giving cows as they are pastoralists to date. The amount of money or number of cows is determined by the girls family. There is then a process of bargaining before the actual price is decided.
Staple Foods
Most tribes in Tanzania have their own staple food according to the environment in which they live and the crops most able to grow in their location. In the north, most tribes eat bananas and beans on a daily basis. In the west, the staple food is ugali, or a stiff porridge made of corn flour and water. If you go to the east, most people eat rice as rice requires more water which is more readily available by the coast. Most eastern people also eat hefty amounts of bread in the form of buns. In the South, most people eat cassava and other vegetables, as the land is fertile enough to grow many different types of veggies all year long.
How do you tell time in Swahili?
Time in Swahili is told differently than time in Western culture, where the day begins at midnight and noon is used as a point of reference. In Swahili, 1 o’clock in the morning is the first hour after sunrise (what the rest of the world refers to as 7:00 a.m.), and 1 o’clock at night is the first hour after sunset (what the rest of the world refers to as 7:00 p.m.). The reason is very practical. Most Swahili speakers live close to the equator, and on the equator the sun rises and sets at the same time every day of the year. Unlike countries far from the equator, where sunrise in June might occur at 4:30 a.m and sunrise in December might be at 8:30 a.m., the sunrise in the Swahili speaking world is so consistent that you can set your clock by it. And people do!
Two ways you can translate time from English to Swahili:
1. Are you a quick mathematician?
If you are, you simply add or subtract six hours when reading a standard clock to tell time in swahili.
2. Are you a more of a visual learner?
If you are, draw a standard clock for yourself. The hands of the clock meant to read Swahili time always point to a number opposite to the number for the actual time as spoken in English.
For example, a Swahili speaker would look at a standard clock at noon, with the little hand pointing to the 12, and say, “now it’s 6 o’clock” (“Sasa ni saa sita”).
Practice: If a standard clock reads four in the afternoon, what time is it in Swahili? (answer: 10 o’clock)
