Economic Rights Advocacy in Bongo Fleva

Abstract

Bongo Fleva music, among others, engages with socioeconomic realities, depicting the hardships of life and its consequences to individuals. Nevertheless, existing scholarship on Bongo Fleva has largely overlooked its engagement with economic rights. The current article addresses this gap by examining the songs “Haki” and “Rais wa Kitaa” by Tanzanian Bongo Fleva artists Sugu and Nay wa Mitego. It examines their representation of violations of economic rights affecting ordinary citizens and working-class communities, as perpetrated by state authorities, political elites, and economic structures. The article draws on the intersection of human rights and literary discourse. It particularly employs James Dawes’ theorisation of storytelling and Reiner Forst’s concept of human dignity as theoretical lenses for analysing these songs as lyrical narratives that articulate moral claims against economic injustices. Through a close reading of the songs’ lyrics, the analysis reveals a framing of unfair taxation, inadequate remuneration, and economic exclusion as material deprivation and also as denials of dignity rooted in unequal power relations. The findings demonstrate that Bongo Fleva songs provide a significant literary space in which marginalised groups are represented as agents who contest economic inequality, demand recognition and justification, and reimagine economic equality in a context where formal mechanisms of accountability remain limited.