In recent years we have seen an increasing number of East African collabos. The media and industry have become more connected, creating more opportunities for artistes to tour the region. Of course language is a significant factor: Swahili is generally understood all across East Africa, though there is a cheeky saying that ‘Swahili was born in Tanzania, grew up in Kenya, retired in Uganda and died in Congo’: some would argue that the ‘purest’ form of Swahili is spoken along the coast of Tanzania and Kenya, though Congolese Swahili is not any less of a fully developed language. And despite the different dialects of Swahili in all these countries, some Bongo Flava tracks from Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) have become hits as far as Burundi, Rwanda and eastern Congo and the likes of Chameleone (Uganda) and Jua Cali (Kenya) are familiar faces in all of East Africa.Tanzanian rapper, AY has recently been traveling a lot, and his American collaboration with Lil Romeo and La’Myia was released in August. For his new single he’s looked closer to home as he teamed up with Kenyan band Sauti Sol whose debut album Mwanzo came out in 2009, followed by Sol filosofia earlier this year. The video for their joint track I don’t wanna be alone, which mixes Swahili and English, was recorded in the desert landscape near the border between Kenya and Tanzania.
