As I visited a number of African countries, I was struck with the power of African music. In every country I visited, I found myself entertained and serenaded by the voices of powerful voices of African musicians. Not understanding the local language was not a barrier because the Congolese with their Lingala had me already indoctrinated to the fact that enjoying music is deeper than understanding the language of the musician.
I love Congolese music to the core but also enjoy my Kenyan music from all tribes even more. I never appreciated Kenya music until I ran into friends from Malawi and Zambia who kept asking me for tapes of misiani music. Those were the days people looked for tapes before Youtube showed up. Only to find out later that for them benga was nisiani and that Kenyan benga music was a big hit in those two countries with Owino Misiani, leading the pack of Kenyan benga musicians from the mid 60’s.
In terms of global impact, Jamaican reggae and townhall music has been copied in the US, India, Japan, and a number of Asian, European and South American countries in unprecedented fashion. Jamaican are giants in influencing music at a global level. While in Africa, Congolese (Zairwa) are our continental giants. Often forgotten are Ghana highlife music pioneers and their Nigerian counterparts.
To honour the power of African music, I will start to post Ghana and Nigerian highlife music because I spent so much time in those two countries. My first batch is for outdoor background music. Hopefully you will be sipping your drink under a coconut palm tree on a beach at night with a breeze from the ocean, or a tree in a leafy surbaban joint with your girl or man for company. Kama una gonja mwisho wa mwezi hakuna shida.
All, please share your own favourite background music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqW1FjPxNkM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqRJSderMw
