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Showing posts from November, 2025

The Top Tanzanian Songs of All-Time - Starting Eleven

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I asked some friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from  Tanzania . My Tanzanian alter-ego,  Hamis Ambwene Massawe , also contributed, thanks to all he has learnt around  Museke . I also asked  Google  Gemini (yes, not Meta AI, Chat GPT, Grok, Deepseek, or POE - because, I asked it through Google Sheets). You know it is my friend these days right? I also contributed my top 5. My first time in  Tanzania   was in 2012, thanks to my work at  Google . Prior to that, I had been learning about Tanzanian music from my  Bongo friends  at  MIT  and then later at  Stanford . When I visited Dar Es Salaam, I hanged out with a lot of top musicians there, thanks to Museke. I had the kind of experiences in Bongo land that would make you say "Bingo". I miss Tanzania dearly! I wanted to do a list of top 5, but there are too many songs. So I have aggregated  11 , to represent  Tanzania  in the World Cup of...

The Top Ivorian Songs of All-Time - Starting Eleven

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 I asked some friends to name their  top 5 songs  ever, from  Ivory Coast . I have not outdoored an alter-ego from Cote D'Ivoire. One of these days. I leveraged my knowledge about Ivorian music as well, thanks to all I have learnt around  Museke . I also asked  Google  Gemini (not through Google Sheets this time) & some other competitors of theirs). You know AI is is my friend these days right? I also contributed my top 5. My first time in  Ivory Coast   was in 2015. This was thanks to Nescafe , and I am not even a big fan of coffee. I am a big fan of dancing, and you know Ivorians make serious danceable music, starting from Coupé-décalé. Prior to 2015, I had been listening to a lot of Ivorien music . The funny thing I never really met Ivorians until I returned to Ghana from the US. Prior to 2011 , I had befriended several Ivorians through Twitter, thanks to the Barcamp movement across the continent . Barcamp Abidjan - Barcamp Babi....