Thanks Mick on the information about the Midi files. The one on SingOut! is a bit weird... too much influence from the West African versions maybe. Listen to that .wav file I posted. That's how the Kenyan versions sound... very simple. (The Swahili pronunciation is pretty darn good for Canuks, too!) Makeba, and those that copied her versions, had poor pronunciation as they weren't native Swahili speakers. (Kidjo's is awful!) And forget about Pete Seeger's pronunciation... it's worse than his spanish. (Sorry Pete.) Safari Sounds does an OK version... they're from Kenya.
Like to here a typical East African group singing Malaika? Go to this page: Low Tide: The Music and click on "Listen to Malaika" (3rd music file):
I could post a gif file somewhere I guess. Is there a place to post these on Mudcat? I could do an ABC as well, after all I managed to do it on my cell phone which is about the same, but it's tedious. It sounds so much cooler than all the stupid rings that are preset on the phone. I play it on ukulele, which it sounds very good on. It's a great ukulele song!