Characteristics
While Bongo flava is clearly related to American hip hop. It is also clearly distinguished from its Western counterpart. As the bongoflava.com website puts it, "these guys don't need to copy their brothers in America, but have a sure clear sense of who they are and what sound it is they’re making". The sound "has its roots in the rap, R&B and hip hop coming from America but from the beginning these styles have been pulled apart and put back together with African hands".
The typical Bongo flava artiste identifies with the mselah. It is in this sense that, for example, members of the hip hop crew Afande Sele call themselves watu pori, i.e., "men of the savannah". A sort of manifesto of mselah ideology is given by the song Mselah Jela by Bongo flava singer Juma Nature, who defines the mselah, amongst other things, as an "honest person of sincere heart". Following the tradition of western hip hop (as represented by the pioneering hip hop group Afrika Bambaataa), bongo flava lyrics usually tackle social and political issues such as poverty, political corruption, superstition, and HIV/AIDS, often with a more or less explicit educational intent, an approach that is sometimes referred to as "edutainment". Afande Sele, for example, have written songs that are intended to teach prevention of malaria and HIV.
Read more about this topic: Bongo Flava