246 african appropriations
his comportment in his video clips, in which he presents himself as a man
close to the people, Mzungu Kichaa seems to earn a lot of respect among
Tanzanian fans of Bongo flava music. Serious critiques or so-called hater
comments are absent from the commentary lists of his video clips on
YouTube.
This differs from EES (Eric Sell), whose many music videos on YouTube
inspire controversial commentaries also. In her friendly comment on Ya
Rocka (EES feat. Fresh Family, 2012), Brown Timoteus, who most likely
is a young female black Namibian well acquainted with Kwaito and its
latest top acts, has this to say: “EES!!!! Yes jaaaa.... he’s probably the only
white Namibian that can dance kwaito. lol... I love it!!!”^15 And a certain
nauta51, who is a “Namibia[n] student in Greece,” calls EES “my bro” and
also lets him know: “i really love your music cos you promote nam-music
very well with nam-flavor, just keep it up, and say hi to all nam-people
there if you are still in namibia, sharp!”^16 Others have more qualms with
EES’s claim to represent Kwaito, Namibia, or even the whole of Africa.
Thus, the music video T. I. A. (This is Africa), which is a collaboration be-
tween EES and the Namibian rapper Gazza, has prompted an interesting
debate among commenters. The song title refers to the initialism tiA (for
“this is Africa”), which in southern Africa is frequently used—especially
in tourist contexts—as an ironic or even sarcastic comment on any kind of
shortcoming or difficulty believed to be typically African (cf. Mboti 2011).
EES and Gazza’s song is first of all a dance tune with a moving beat. On
a somewhat deeper level, however, it turns the pessimistic notion of tiA
into something quite positive: it invites the assumingly foreign listener to
come and experience Africa and adjust to the life there: “Yes, Ja, I would
like to invite you to the beautiful continent of Africa / W here we say ‘Ja’ /
This is t.i.A. ‘Ja’ / So what’s up? / W hat ever you do / You have to do it,
like we do / Don’t freeze / You gotta move to the beat [... ] Africa—We
are the future.” Commenting on this clip, a certain monaomar1 begins
by saying, “Good song... but not as good as K’naan’s T.I.A.”^17 This is a
reference to the Canadian Somali rapper Kaynaan Cabdi Warsame, more
widely known for his music video Wav in’ F l ag (c h o s e n a s C o c a - C o l a ’s
promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa). In his
own T. I. A. song, K’naan ridicules the gangster attitude of African Ameri-
can rappers and invites them “on a field trip” to Africa to see real hard-