MTV Base Africa and Shell have partnered in another initiative to shoot some excellent music videos for a number of African musicians. They have already shot videos for Ghana's Tinny (Incomplete), South Africa's HHP (Music and Lights) and Kenya's Nikki (Kipofu).

The first MTV Making the Video Challenge with Shell partnered Little X, the Toronto-born music video director behind cutting edge music videos with Sean Paul, Jay Z and Rihanna, with South African video directors, Kwaito artist Bleksem and Mozambique's Dama do Bling on their exciting single collaboration, 'Wena Uthini' (also known as Thula Uzoyiboma). Bleksem has been riding high on the success of his 'How low can you go' track with DJ Cleo. Dama do Bling is one of Africa's best female emcees and she has also released singles from her new album (Chamadas para a Bling), including 'Gimme love'.

We are enjoying this awards season very much. We've gone through Ghana, South Africa, many Nigerian ones, Sierra Leone and we are awaiting the winners in Uganda and Namibia. You can click the countries to see the winners from each country. We can't leave out Kenya and when you talk about the land of genge, benga, kapuka and boomba music, the Kisima Music Awards is the biggest show. It rewards mostly Kenyan musicians as well as those from Uganda and Tanzania. East Africa unite! The show would be held on 29th November.

According to the Kisima website, The General public within East Africa votes through the Mobile phone by SMS to a short code number and Internet for the regions without access to the short code. SMS Platform Short Code for public vote to cover the East Africa region 4142 - KENYA 7197 - UGANDA 15550 - TANZANIA To vote for your preferred Nominee, text the word Kisima –followed by the Nominee Category Code i.e 36a Send a text ‘kisima 36a’ to the short code within your region. Any other voter outside the East African region will only be allowed to vote online through our website.. There is a "How to vote" link on the Kisima website

Here are the nominees arranged by name of musician, song/track, and sms code

• View all from Rose Muhando
  Album Uwe macho
  Artistes Rose Muhando
  Language Swahili
  Runtime 6:59
  Track # 3
  Video URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhxWrM9l5lg
  Writer Rose Muhando
  Year 2005

• View all from Juliana Kanyomozi
  Album Usiende Mbali
  Artistes Juliana Kanyomozi, Bushoke
  Language Swahili
  Video URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5gxggGA6VM
  Writer Bushoke
  Year 2008

We are Bongo flava fans as well. We are here to make sure you are not stuck in Cinderella mode. There is new music out of Tanzania and it rocks. It includes hip-hop, afro-pop and R&B as well. TID came back strong and Lady Jaydee is always a sure thing when it comes to making hit songs. The July Tz countdown has the old, the current and the future.

Here is the countdown/chart/menu

TID - Nyota yako, Watasema sana
Matonya - Anita, Vailet
Lady Jaydee - Siku hazigandi, Nishike mkono
Dully Sykes - Baby candy, Kupenda
Prof Jay - Hapo sawa

If you haven't heard that Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania are planning to become one political entity soon, make sure to google it or ask someone from those countries. With the unrest in Kenya, right now, it may take a while but the plan is in the works. Maybe a new government, Raila Odinga's, would come into power and put that proposition that Mwai Kibaki championed to rest, but in the meantime, we can have some unity in music. Various East African musicians have been pushing the unity for awhile and it is working.

• View all from Jose Chameleone
  Album Sivyo Ndivyo
  Artistes Jose Chameleone, Professor Jay
  Language Swahili
  Runtime 4:27
  Video URL http://youtube.com/watch?v=msR7FIuqRKM
  Writer Joseph Mayanja, Joseph Haule
  Year 2006

• View all from Jose Chameleone
  Album Kipepeo
  Artistes Jose Chameleone
  Language Swahili
  Runtime 4:37
  Video URL http://youtube.com/watch?v=3CT85KwHDcU
  Writer Joseph Mayanja
  Year 2006

• View all from Mina Nawe
  Album Njalo
  Artistes Mina Nawe, Lady Jaydee
  Language Swahili, Zulu
  Runtime 4:31
  Track # 4
  Writer Mina Nawe, Judith Daines Wambura Mbibo
  Year 2005