From the streets of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, comes a film about opportunity. Bongo, from the Swahili word for “brain”, represents the cunning resourcefulness that it takes to survive on the streets of Dar es Salaam and, for that, the city takes its nickname.

From these streets came a movement that has taken the music industry by storm and has created a new voice for the younger generation that is being heard by millions. They call this music Bongo Flava. For the msela, the young street hustlers in Dar, Bongo Flava is an identity. As a major force in mainstream media, success stories of youth who ‘made it big’ as hip hop artists straight off the streets have become a source of inspiration for a generation of youth hoping to catch a similar break.

That break came for a group of msela when Urban Project, an unconventional charity, stepped in and told them that they were going to have an opportunity to record an album of their hip hop. Suddenly, they were tasked with the responsibility to find a studio, seek out a willing producer, and write and record an album. Not only that, they were presented with a chance to improve their lives for the better. The story lies in how they responded to these expectations and whether they were able to live up to them.

Over the course of six weeks, dramatic power shifts occurred as the group realized that the hierarchy on the streets didn’t translate into the recording studio. Close friendships were stretched to breaking points, and an unlikely member of the group proved to be a diamond in the rough.

For more information about the film, download the ONE-SHEET: bongo.pdf

Bongo Flava

Bongo Flava is a unique blend of story-telling, East-African song, and Western-inspired hip-hop that has taken the African music industry by storm and has created new voice for a generation of youth that is being heard by millions. For the msela, it is a microphone to express life, love, loss and ambition and a megaphone with which they voice their frustrations of the life on the streets that they were unwillingly thrust into. The lyrics of Bongo Flava tracks can be oppositional and rebellious in nature; they oftentimes express social critique and detail the hardships of life among marginalized Tanzanian youth. However, success stories of youth who ‘made it big’ as hip hop artists straight off the streets are a source of inspiration for young people hoping to catch a similar break. From the perspective of many young people living and working on the streets of Dar es Salaam, Bongo Flava is a musical genre that originated among and continues to be dominated by streetwise gangsters.