See Bongo Flava differently with unimaginable global connection

DAR ES SALAAM: AS Bongo Flava celebrates its 30th anniversary, this new generation music, besides promoting Kiswahili’s rich poetry, knowingly or unknowingly, it has solved many puzzles that previously baffled global music researchers. The whole universe sees itself in Bongo Flava music as mirrored through the views of its listeners from across the globe.

The genre has won admirers from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean and even touched the shores of Melanesia and Polynesia From its global audience, Bongo Flava has hit a broad spectrum, winning appeal even in countries with no direct social, cultural and diplomatic ties with Tanzania.

Unknown to the domestic audience, Bongo Flava megastars like Diamond, Mbosso, Zuchu or Harmonize have won fans in countries like Papua New Guinea, Nepal, Colombia, Equatorial Guinea, which have no direct contact with Tanzanians.

Just a few days after celebrating its 30th anniversary, Bongo Flava hit headlines again today, July 15, 2026, when eleven musicians secured nominations for the African Muzik Magazine Awards (AFRIMMA) 2026, scheduled to take place on September 12, 2026, in Dallas, Texas, USA. According to the awards organisers, Tanzania has earned strong representation across several categories, including Bongo Flava, Gospel music, video directing and dance.

In the Best Male Artist in East Africa category, Tanzania is represented by Diamond Platnumz (Naseeb Abdul), Juma Jux, Barnaba Classic, Mbosso Khan and Marioo, who will compete against leading artists from across the East African region.

For the Best Female Artist in East Africa award, Zuchu and Abigail Chams (Abby Chams) have been nominated, highlighting Tanzania’s continued dominance in the region’s music industry. In the Best Video Director category, renowned music video director Hanscana received a nomination in recognition of his contribution to the production of high-quality music videos.

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Tanzania has also secured nominations in the Gospel music category through celebrated artists Christina Shusho and Joel Lwaga, who will represent the country against some of Africa’s leading gospel musicians. In retrospect, celebrated dancer Angel Nyigu is the only Tanzanian nominee in the Best Dancer category, where she will compete against top African dancers, including Uganda’s Ghetto Kids and Hope Ramafalo.

The winners of the AFRIMMA 2026 awards will be announced during the gala ceremony on September 12 in Dallas, with Tanzania hoping to add more continental honours through its impressive lineup of nominees. Angel Nyigu is a Tanzanian dancer and choreographer known for her frequent collaborations with Diamond Platnumz and popularizing local dance challenges.

You can typically find her dancing to and creating choreography for popular Bongo Flava, Afrobeat, and Amapiano hits. She has famously danced to and hosted challenges for several major songs, including: “Naringa” by Zuchu,”Better on My Own” by Zuchu & Marioo,”Tshwala Bami” by TitoM, Yuppe, S.N.E, and EeQue “Baselabani” She is a Tanzanian lady who can also perform all types of world’s popular genres.s They may sound familiar to an ordinary African due to their resemblance with common Bantu speaking tribes, names like Bahia, Barankwilla, Tijuana, Huapango, Matanzas or Merengue are LatIn American names that prefer to associate themselves with Bongo Flava.

It is still baffling how these cities and dance styles of Latin America get a close link with rural and urban centres instead of Brazil, the country that received the majority of Africans from East and Central African countries.

The Mexican-Colombia connection speaks louder than the rest of Latino world today and they have reasons to claim that link. Diamond Platinumz’ 2020 release, Jeje has been a street rocker in various areas of Mexico and Colombia after it rocked the Latino World.

The sweetness of “Jeje” didn’t end in Mexico and Colombia, it also won admirers n Western part of Nigeria where Yoruba people claim to see themselves in the way Jeje was performed. Most of the Latinos who adore it, claim to see their folk music and they relate it to Mexican Huapango and Merengue for Colombian viewers.

Without any close contact with Bantu speaking East and Central African region, Mexicans, Colombians and Venezuelans, have been keen followers of the music genres of the region for over five decades as depicted through their views in various music outlets, most notably the Youtube.

The Latinos who seemed to adore Jeje, labeled it mystical from the way the lady dancer flavoured it, but best analytical views were penned by Yoruba-speaking Nigerians. From Youtube viewers, “Jeje” was well understood and better explained. “Jeje in Yoruba- it means gently.Fantastic song.

I can hear Igbo and Yoruba. The legend is multilingual, commented a fan named Genuinediasporan. “I love how Diamond has that Nigerian vibe and even says JEJE which means EASY in Yoruba language in Nigeria. Oh, Nakupenda diamond. I miss Dar es salaam,” commented Helen Mesole.

“I always love this mix of afrobeat with sax is insane, very good song, greetings from Latin America,” echoed Gilberto Valenzuela, “A huge greeting from Mexico,” said Moyitojazz. “What a beautiful ladyyyyy!!!!! Love this music, saludos desde Medellín Colombia,” Milocpe noted.

As opposed to various researches that claim African music has a huge influence in music genres played in various countries of Latin America, the Latinos believe the African pop music has borrowed heavily from Mexican Huapango and Colombian Merengue.

“Huge Mexico, Tijuana influence in Africa,” commented a Youtube viewer, Andrew Fletcher. A thorough probe of the main feature of La Bamba came out with intriguing findings that it was Carlos Santana’s version that had an everlasting influence on East Africans and Congolese musicians.

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The African influence to Mexican folk music has not been as widely acknowledged as opposed to the widely publicized contributions from European and Amerindian.

Tanzania or East Africa has never been in direct contact with Latino word as the majority of enslaved Africans were taken from the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Angola, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, among others. One can argue that through traditional oral music, the panorama of African heritage is much more optimistic than that of strong documents.

Bongo Flava has also covered the music influence from the countries served by the Indian Ocean. Diamond Platnumz seems to lead the Tanzanian music onslaught on the global stage.

His collaboration with the Congolese megastars, Innosy B, Fally Ipupa and Koffi Olomide, brought Segere (Tanzania coastal music) to Kinshasa, and a whole world of music fans reacted approvingly. In fusing Swahili music with Kinshasastyled genres, Diamond has brought Indian Ocean (Dar es Salaam) flavours to the Atlantic Ocean, and the two genres matched well.

It is Segere to Tanzanians but to Congolese and other members of Francophone countries, the Indian Ocean music genre goes by Sega and it is well known in Frenchspeaking countries.

Popularly known as Bi Kidude, the Zanzibar music legend, Fatuma Bint Baraka was very popular in Francophone countries and frequently toured France and Belgium for her style that kept away Arabic-influenced maqamat scales to retain a pure Bantu look.

“Muhogo wa Jang’ombe” remains Bi Kidude’s most popular hit, which surprisingly respects the linear scales of the popular Indian Ocean music widely known in French-Speaking countries in terms of linear scales. Sega or Segere(Tanzania) style rocked the French world in early 1990s when Denis Azzor from Mariius ’s Oli Lala made a huge global appeal in the 1990s as a Sega music masterpiece.

Sega has been a popular music genre from the Indian Ocean Islands of Reunion, Mauritius, Comoro, Seychelles, and Madagascar. In an interview with one of the French magazines, Dennis Azor claimed Sega originated from Zanzibar and that put Bi Kidude’s “Muhogo wa Jang’ombe” and Azor’s” Ala li la” under the same magnifier. Bi Kidude didn’t play taarab, but her music was labeled Msondo, a women’s dance that aims to educate girls on the principles and manners of modest living as married women.

Her seminar hit “Muhogo wa Jang’ombe” which was later re-mastered by Judith Wambura (Lady JD) remains the model of what the Francophone world sees as Sega and Segere or simply Mwambao style to mean music Swahili people of the East African coast.

Among the most popular hits styled in Segere or Sega for France-speaking,include “Aiyola” by Harmonize, “Waache Waoane” by Chege, and “Nasema Nawe” by Diamond featuring Taarab Queen, Khadija Kopa. But true Sega was brought to Tanzania in 1978 by the then Seychelles Army Captain, David Filo who teamed up with Mwenge Jazz members to record “Aiyo Panga” at Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD).

Like Segere, Sega is danced without the feet ever leaving the ground, instead, the rest of the body moves and that corresponds well with Segua Segua, a dance style Tabora Jazz Band developed in the early 1980s. It has been very baffling to find where exactly Sega originated despite the presence of strong evidence that people who enslaved and sold to Frenchmen to work in their sugar plantations came from Congo and some areas of Western Tanzania.

Dar es Salaam’s Young Stars Modern Taarab with Siza Mazongela on lead vocal, almost single-handedly created a new style when they released their song “Segere Origin” in 2001.

Though they identify their group as Chakacha from Comoro, their wedding song titled Wawili Wapendanao insists that Sega originated from the Swahili of the East African coastline.

That, in general, goes contrary to the reality as slaves from Western Tanzania and Eastern Congo were shipped to Reunion, Mauritius, and Seychelles after being bought at the Zanzibar Slave Market, and Sega dance was not performed during their early tenure as slaves.