I almost want to stand up for Tanzanian music a bit, though. My experience when I was there was that while the radio might have played a lot of Congolese or American pop music, people chose to buy tapes from Tanzanian pop singers when they had the choice. Maybe because TZ is completely swahili-phonic, there’s a particular market demand for swahili pop music. And there’s taarab on the coast too. But I do feel your point; such music isn’t really celebrated for its indigeneity in the sense you meant it, I think. But then, by that standard, nobody really holds a candle to those Malian cats.

There is something really deep about the Malians, it’s true. The Shona tradition in Zimbabwe is as deep, though. It’s just more low-key and doesn’t have, for us, the sense of being on the other side of a broken umbilical to the blues. And for vocal music I don’t think anyplace beats South Africa.

In that bit about East African music (or the lack of it) I was playing with an impression I’ve had for a long time. There’s the cliché, either pro- or anti-African, of the continent drenched in music (or just drumming), and then there’s the things I know about African music, which mostly come from somewhere besides East, and then there’s the part I’ve seen and heard in person. A big problem with my frame of reference is that many of my impressions of the rest of the continent come from the music and musicians I hear or meet in the states—an extremely biased sample.

I’m sure I’d have a somewhat different impression if I spent time with Barack’s people in Western Kenya. The one Kenyan I’ve known who talked about the roots music back home was Luo. He even gave me one of the instruments, a kind of zither, and I heard a traditional/pop band from that area in a club in Nairobi once (right after the election, news from Kenya was that everyone there is now Luo—I’m not sure how long that will last, though).

I think the emphasis on swahili in TZ does make a difference. Last time I walked around the Nairobi city center, a few years ago, I was amazed at how many Kenyans were speaking english to each other. The one singer from TZ that I’m familiar with, and that I’ve talked about with Kenyan friends, is Remy Ongala. My wife and I used to fantasize about being in Namanga when he came through—apparently he does from time to time (or did—I don’t know whether he’s still in circulation or not). I would love to know more about Anania Ngoliga and his gorgeous ax, though.