Mabantu's momentous journey of discovery

Despite growing up separately, the two Bongo Flava superstars and cousins had a challenging past.
Muuh lost his father a few years after joining the talent institute while Twaha’s father has been long locked up in prison. Being the first born, family responsibilities automatically rested in Twaha’s little shoulders.
At 14 years old, Twaha decided to travel from Mtwara to Dar es Salaam in search of a better life. He had no relatives, he had no one to look out for him and nowhere to stay either.
He stayed at Mbagala bus terminal, sleeping and begging passers-by for money and food.
“I recall it was December 11, 2012 I came across an advert that the Tanzania House of Talent (THT) is celebrating its seven-year anniversary and I used that as a gateway to ‘Mkubwa na Wanae’” explains Twaha.
It was his rapping and singing style that made him sign at the talent institute. Being impressed by each other’s talent, the two became close friends, and later on formed their own group known as Mabantu.
“We were the youngest at the time in the house, we automatically bonded and became friends. When we realised we are actually cousins, our closeness deepened,” narrated Muuh
After graduating in 2013, their journey to the music industry officially wasn’t smooth sailing either. The two matched and spent sleepless nights in several recording studios in the city for a number of years with no success.
“First few years were the most challenging. We dropped out of school to pursue our dreams, we also moved out, started living on our own for the same reason,” explains Muuh.
“We put God first, prayed for no harm to come to us so that our families can be at easy,” shared the two.
Muuh says the industry wasn’t so welcoming for new talents, they had to make extra efforts, stretch an extra mile to convince music producers that they are actually talented.
“We later recorded a few songs which did not achieve the intended milestone. It was disheartening,”
In 2018, the two released ‘Sundi’, ‘Bodaboda’ and ‘Kama Tulivyo’ featuring Whozu but did not perform well.
Mabantu narrates that they had a sit-down, listened to different types of music from outside the continent and within and decided to try out a different sound to typical Bongo Flava, named it bantu hence the name ‘Mabantu’.
The song ‘No love, No stress’ was well received, marking a turning point for Mabantu’s journey in the Bongo Flava industry.
From there, Mabantu started releasing song after song with a similar sound to ‘No Love No Stress’.
Such as ‘Nawakera’ featuring Young Lunya and ‘Shobo’ with R the Dj’.
The same year, Mabantu released their first Extended Playlist dubbed ‘No Stress’ with five songs including ‘Nakesha’, ‘Hit Song’, ‘Show Show’, ‘Hachiti’ and ‘Umenuna’.
Marioo was the only artiste, who featured in their ‘No Stress’ EP.
The vibe and uniqueness of their songs landed them a nod to perform on different stages such as Fiesta, Mziki Mnene, Wasafi Festivals and Nandy Festival.
Muuh says had he not been a musician he would have been a professional boxer or portraitist while Twaha has always been a football-lover.
The two young artistes still have a dream to collaborate with Nigeria’s twin music group, PSquare. They share that it has always been their dream and they are working to make it come true.