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Nay wa Mitego, the Tanzanian rapper who has been banned, jailed and threatened but says he won’t stop

Making hip-hop critical of the government has caused him trouble, but Nay insists his music is a force for change

Nay adds to a history of political and conscious hip-hop in Tanzania, which is tied to the inception Bongo Flava in the early 1990s when there was focus on messages of hope for better opportunities for young people after the country emerged from socialism.. Over the years, many rappers and other artists, such as Prof Jay (Joseph Haule), Roma Mkatoliki (Ibrahim Mussa) and Vitali Maembe, generally freely made music about social ills bedevilling Tanzania. Karen Chalamilla, a Dar es Salaam–based culture writer, said although Nay has been tackling political themes for many years, increasing repression has made people begin to see the government’s reaction to his music as part of a larger issue of censorship.

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