This article draws from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's notion of refrain and Louise Meintjes' concept of music figure and examines various ways a Danish-born Bongo Fleva musi- cian in Tanzania, Mzungu Kichaa deploys music figures to con- struct African and Tanzanian identities. It also examines how he uses these figures to negotiate his position in relation to these identities. To illustrate the perform- ative effects of music figures on people's identities the article examines how the deployment of musical figures serves a double function: to claim one's Tanza- nian or African identity and to announce one's difference with other identities (e.g. European or English identities) at least with regard to musical taste. As a result, Mzungu Kichaa's attempts to enter into the mainstream UK's and Danish music industry were not successful since the music figures he used, the figures that justified his identity as a Tanza- nian or African, occupied margi- nal spaces in European contexts.