Benga vs bongo: A crazy battle of genres

By KIUNDU WAWERU

Their names are as uncommon as the event – a musical battle titled Benga versus Bongo – that brought them together.

Through their music Dan Chizi (Crazy Dude) and Mzungu Kichaa (Crazy Whiteman) sought to show who was a better performer.

Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda, 25, is a Kenyan benga artist, whose latest album is Benganology. Mzungu Kichaa, whose real name is Espen Sorensen, is a Dane who grew up in Tanzania and took to singing bongo which he does with an enthusiastic beat. His debut album, Tuko Pamoja, was nominated as Best World Album at the Danish World Music Awards.

Tanzanian singer Mzungu Kichaa (left) and Kenya’s Dan ‘Chizi’ Aceda perform at the Goethe Institute, Nairobi, as fans (right) try to keep up with their dance routines. [PHOTOS: KIUNDUWAWERU/STANDARD]

As Chizi carried the benga torch, Mzungu Kichaa cried the bongo battle cry, creating an interesting, vibrant musical show that saw fans screaming at the Goethe Institut Auditorium, last Friday night.

Chizi, the self proclaimed Prince of Benga, was first on stage with his Wananchi Band. The audience went ecstatic as he belted number after number and danced energetically. Fans put their best foot forward with hardly any dancing space. The MC did not help things much when said the best dancer would win a phone. After performing a few local songs, including ‘Mugiithi’, Chizi lived up to his name (daring, artsy, bohemian) by unexpectedly performing American crooner Ne-Yo’s, So Sick.

Before saying: "Ne-Yo ni mtu wa benga bwana, anaitwa Njoroge," (Ne-Yo is a benga artiste whose other name is Njoroge). Perhaps Chizi did not mention the name Njoroge – a Kikuyu name – by mistake for it is Kikuyu musicians, led by DK Wamaria, who in the 1960s borrowed the benga beat from Nyanza popularising it. After Ne-Yo’s song, he belted a Michael Jackson’s number with a benga tune showing that genre goes beyond borders.

Cultural exchange

Chizi had worked the crowd, could Mzungu Kichaa do the same with the Tanzanian bongo beat flavour? Bongo became popular in Tanzania over the last 10 years, whereas benga that has been there for decades.

But bongo, which derived from American hip hop, merged with native dance music (muziki wa densi), taarab and other genres, has made inroads in Kenya. And Mzungu Kichaa did not disappoint. He cut a hippie figure, clad in tight jeans and t-shirt, and sunglasses. His Kiswahili is fluent, his singing crisp. This alone gave him some mileage –– a mzungu singing in Kiswahili! The audience loved him.

That was not all. The ‘crazy whiteman’ can dance too, even going chini kwa chini at one point, to chide Chizi, who had earlier joked that Caucasians dance offbeat.

"After tonight, I hope he will not repeat that mistake," Kichaa said adding that the battle with Chizi was a dream come true.

"I saw him perform a year ago and thought it would be nice to share a stage with him," he said.

The concert was a brainchild of Buddha Blaze, with R-Kay under the umbrella of Ingoma Music, in what Chizi says is one of many lined up events—a kind of a cultural exchange. In Kiswahili, Mzungu Kichaa said he had taken a risk that paid off.

"I had not brought my band along, and it was my first time to play with the Wananchi Band that had practised my music. It was a great night and I will carry the memory with me back to Tanzania," he said.

"So who won?" Buddha posed this question. Both it seems, as screams of benga, bongo rent the air as the duo came together and sung the evergreen Sina Makosa – a duet that nearly brought the roof of the auditorium down.

It was an unforgettable performance, a crazy one, so to speak.