TANZANIAN MUSICIANS WHO DIED IN DECEMBER

Many people believe that the last month of the year tends to be characterized by many shocking tragedies, it seems this is in someway true in the community of Tanzanian musicians. Here are some of the tragedies that befell some Tanzanian musicians in the month of December.
Let me go back to the night of December 12, 2010, on that night Ramadhani Mtoro Ongala, a famous musician also known as Dr. Remmy Ongala died.  Dr Remmy died at the Regency Hospital in Dar es Salaam Dr Remmy came to Tanzanian from Congo and he joined the Orchestra Makassy band, a band led by Mzee Makassy whom Remmy used to identify as his uncle. After some time, Remmy left Orchestra Makassy and joined the Super Matimila Band that was based in Songea, a town south of Tanzania, he again rejoined Orchestra Makassy where at that time I was lucky to be one of the musicians in the band, and on the lineup  of that great band then there was also the great late  Mosese Fan Fan. Dr Remmy again returned to Super Matimila and was the band leader for a long time, playing a style he called the  Bongo Beat. But eventually Dr Remmy left dance music scene and turned to gospel music until death. Dr Remmy was buried on Thursday 16th  December 2010 in the Sinza cemetery, not far from an area named after him, 'Sinza kwa Remmy'.  On the eve of Dr Remmy's burial, various musicians gathered at Dr Remmy's house and played music throughout the night to bid farewell to their comrade. Just two days after Dr. Remmy's funeral, another musician who was riding a motorcycle that led the procession to the cemetery to bury Dr. Remmy had a fatal accident, he was hit by a car and died on the spot, he was returning home with his motorcycle after his music gig, it was Saturday 18 December 2010. The musician was Abou Semuhando also known asG Lokasa or Baba Diana. Abou was a veteran  drummer and was at a time with  Dr Remmy in the Super Matimila Band. Other bands that Abou had  played drums in, include Sola TV Band , Vijana Jazz Band  and The Diamond Sound Group. Abou was buried at his home village in  Kibanda, Muheza.  To add to this sad occasion, on the day of his death, Abou’s eldest daughter was to get married.

Group photo of the Super Matimila Band, standing from left to right - the late Dr Remmy Ongala, the late Abou Semhando, the late Kasaloo Kyanga, the late Mosese Fan Fan. 

Another December death occurred at dawn on 28 December 2011 at the Marie Stoppes Mwenge hospital in Dar es Salaam. The talented bass guitarist Andisye Swebe, better known as Andy Swebe, suffered from an asthma attack at night, he was  rushed  to the hospital, but Andy died. Andy learnt how to play the guitar from David Mussa the leader of Safari Trippers Band, he then played in a small band called Oshekas, but then moved to Morogoro where he was employed in a leather factory. One day Mzee Makassy's band had a gig in Morogoro and when he was invited on stage to play a bit,  Mzee Makassy was so pleased with his playing that he asked him to join the band, that was the beginning of Andy's long journey in music, later he moved to Lovy Longomba's Afriso Ngoma Band, which had at that time great musicians like Kassim Mponda, Raymond Thomas, Seif Lengwe, Sololo wa Imani, John Maida, Ramadhani Kinguti, Kalamazoo and others. Later  he moved to MK Group, after some times left the group and moved to Bicco Stars,  the music journey continued when he and the saxophonist the late Mafumu Bilali launched their own band and called it the African Beats Band. They had  problems about the name of the band, and Andy moved to the Kilimanjaro Connection band under Kanku Kelly and together they toured several countries for several years with this band.  Andy was a freelance musician without a band when death took him, me and him had actually began thinking of coming up with our own band just days before his untimely death.

the late Andy Swebe on the bass guitar

On December 15, 2014, veteran musician Shem Karenga died. Shem Karenga died at Amana Hospital and was buried at Kisutu Cemetery.  Shem had been a member of a number of bands in his life. He started as a bass guitarist playing with the  Lake Tanganyika Jazz of Kigoma, and moved to Tabora Jazz Band where he started playing the lead guitar and composed hits like Dada Asha.  He moved to Dar es Salaam and joined the  MK Beats and finally moved to  Tabora Jazz Stars his last band.

Left Lokassa Ya Mbongo, Shem Karenga

Let me finish the article by remembering the musician whom fans of the Orchestra Maquis du Zaire  band and  Maquis Original Orchestra knew by the his stage name 'Mzee Chekecha'. His official name was Mwema Mudjanga, he was the band's trumpeter but he had a swagger that eventually gave him the name Mzee Chekecha, he was also one of the directors of Orchestra Maquis du Zaire Company (OMACO) and he died on December 6, 2013 in Amana hospital and was buried in Magomeni cemetery Kagera

Mwema Mudjanga - Mzee Chekecha

May they all rest in peace

 

 

ARUSHA DAY TWO

 I woke to a nice sunny day two in Arusha. My schedule included meeting my host Emmanuel in Arusha and also later meet one of the senior managers of Tanzania Film Company (TFC) I had been given his number by another former employee of TFC, and when I contacted him by coincidence he told me he too was in Arusha, I was really excited at the proospect of meeting him, I wanted to ask him a number of things about that company. 

But first I had to deliver a letter to the management of The Arusha Declaration Museum to officially give my intention of working with the museum in researching and providing music composed and recorded about the  Arusha Declaration. It was my intention to then meet my host but unfortunately, he suddenly was nowhere to be seen or heard, and neither did I see the former TFC official, it was disappointing but not the end of the world, life had to go on.
I began walking around Arusha touring all the old music spots that I could remember. I passed by the Metropole Cinema Hall, the AICC where bands like the Ambassadors used to perform, Arusha Hotel, Hotel Seventy Seven and other famous music places of the days gone by and by chance I also passed near a former music shop owned by the late Congolese musician Baba Gaston, and that gave me the idea of looking for old music shops.
Not very far from the Arusha Declaration Museum , there was a shop that sold only gospel music, here first I was really interested in getting a copy of one of my old favorite gospel song,  Kila Mtu atauchukua mzigo wake mwenyewe . and the guy running the shop said he had the song, it was great getting the original audio copy, I have been playing it over and over again since. Most of the shop was filed with CDs and DVDs, but there were also many dusty VHS cassettes of old gospel choirs. When I asked for the price of the VHS cassettes, instead of answering me, the young man  asked if I had a farm, that was so strange, I asked what has me having a farm got to do with the price of the video cassettes? He then gave me a shocker, he said farmers buy those video cassettes and unroll the tapes and spread them around the farms, when the wind blew the tapes would make a noise that scared away birds. That had me laughing out, I had never imagined video tapes being used by farmers for scaring away birds.

I told him I was interested in the songs in the VHS cassettes, he had a lot of the cassettes but unfortunately I couldn't buy all the cassettes I wanted for the lack of enough fund. 

Later that afternoon I thought I would check on a music shop that used to exist in the 80s just near the Arusha Clock Tower, and to my surprise it was still there, the shop was being run by a very jolly  Indian guy, who knew a lot about the music business in Tanzania. He was also now selling Masai  cultural artifacts.
On the top shelves there were some dusty VHS that were staked high on the top of each other. When I told him I was looking for old Tanzanian music video cassettes , he told to see him the next day he would have checked his store where there were more cassettes. The next day I was at the shop and it was a bit disappointing, most of the VHS that he had were of Congolese music but I did get some very interesting video cassettes. I left the shop with my big bag full of VHS cassettes and went back to my hotel room to prepare for the journey back to Dar es Salaam, it was clear there wasn't much I was going to gain for staying in Arusha presently in Arusha  

 

DAY ONE IN ARUSHA

 Woke up very early on my first day in Arusha, looked out of the window and there was a a light drizzle outside, I remembered the first time I came to this City back in 1972, it was during the college holidays I had come to visit my friend and college mate Yusuf Mdee. He lived in Ngarenaro National Housing quarters with his beautiful and kind sisters. I loved the town from the start, it was a busy town, because of the the vibrant East African Community relations, Arusha was full of young people from all over East Africa, every weekend there would be a drinking  party somewhere in town, music from Congolese bands like Orchestra Veve, Orchestra Bela Bela, orchestra Lipua Lipua, being enjoyed by youths in bellbottom trousers and high platform shoes. Disco music held in the place called 'The Cave' was like every sensible youth's place to be on Saturday night. It was like everywhere I turned, there was just happiness,  youths just celebrating being alive. This was the kind of town I wanted to live in.

Me in Arusha 1973

The big rumba band in Arusha then, were Orchestra National and the Arusha Jazz Band. Arusha Jazz Band which had already started branding its name to 'Wanyika', the band went on to become the famous Simba Wanyika  after moving to Kenya.
Just near where these bands performed was the Metropole Cinema Hall, another important entertainment point. That was where for the first time watched films like, The Godfather and Shaft's Big Score. 
After completing our course at the teachers' college , we were handed forms to choose which region we would like to be posted to, my first choice was of course Arusha region, I was dreaming of the fun I was going to have there. Sure enough I got my first choice and was sent to Arusha Region, when I reported to the Regional Education Officer he told me he was going to post me to Hanang District. I was puzzled, at the time I had never heard of Hanang district, the name sounded very Chinese to me and because at the time Tanzania was in very good relation with Mao Tse-tung's China, I really believed the Hanang was a Chinese word.
In 1973, Hanang district whose capital was Babati town, was a far cry from the beautiful Arusha, and to make matters worse when I reported to the  Hanang District Education Officer he posted me to a school in a remote village called Orbesh, you had to walk 12 kilometers to the nearest bus station in Dongobesh. My weekly partying dreams in Arusha evaporated.
So here I was again in Arusha in October 2023.
I am not a 'breakfast' guy, so as soon as I had dressed up I left the hotel, my first stop was the Arusha Declaration Museum. The museum is housed very near the Torch Tower (Mnara wa Mwenge). The building that houses the museum used to be the Kaloleni Social Welfare Hall, in January 1967 a historical meeting was held here and the policy of Ujamaa na Kujitegemea (Socialism and Self reliance) was drawn. Ten years later the building was converted to a political museum. 

Mnara wa Mwenge

I paid my visitors fee at the gate and entered the museum to be taken back in time. There were lots of very interesting photographs, one or two were miss captioned, but all in all a very interesting experience. The photos did take me back more than 50 years ago. I was in Std 7 when the Arusha declaration was announced, all schools all over the country marched in streets (kuunga mkono azimio) to support the declaration, youths all over the country did one thing or the other to show support to the declaration, some marched hundreds of miles, one young man, Seth Benjamin, lost his life marching in support of the Arusha Declaration.
Almost every where songs were composed, traditional songs, choirs, bands, taarab groups everyone had something to say about the declaration. Artists came up with paintings and drawings, the Makonde carvers came up with the Ujamaa carving which is still very popular. Stage plays were held in all levels of the society, there were radio plays, books, films, cartoons all in one way or the other talking about the different aspects of the Declaration. The title 'honourable' was officially disused and the title 'Ndugu' which could also be translated as comrade started being used, even the President of the country was addressed as Ndugu. Standing in the Museum was a chilling experience for me.
But then I found it strange that the museum did not have any musical work, when I know there were thousands of Arusha Declaration songs composed and recorded at the time. It was just as it had been in Tanga Museum, where there had been hundreds of famous Tanga musician, the museum seemed to have a memory loss on the musicians and their music.
I asked to see the director and offered to try to provide the music part of the museum and the Director was fully up to the idea,  I am sure soon visitors to the museum will have the musically experience of the Arusha Declaration.

THE LEGENDARY AHMED KIPANDE, THE BAND LEADER OF KILWA JAZZ BAND

Ahmad Kipande

Ahmad Kipande was born in Kilwa. When as a teenager in 1953, he decided to move to Dar es Salaam the capital city of the then  Tanganyika to look for employment, when he arrived in Dar es Salaam life was not easy, but among things that he found very interesting was gramophone, this was an instrument that could play the 78 rpm shellac records. At the time the 78 rpm records from Cuba were very popular. The titles were in Spanish, but they were also numbered beginning with the letters GV, they were famously known as the GV series records. Ahmad began to listen and enjoying the music from these great Cuban masters, he also began to listen to musicians from East African Fundi Konde, Harry Makacha, and Frank Humplink and his sisters and many other greats of the time. Gradually, he began to have the desire to become a musician. Kipande started teaching himself how to play various instruments by himself, in time he could play various instruments including the guitar, ukulele, banjo, and violin and finally he learned the saxophone, and the instrument that was to bring him great fame. Ahmad’s first music group was the Tanganyika Jazz Band. As was the mode in those days, Tanganyika Jazz Band was a group of individuals who formed the band to play music as a hobby.  The band consisted of  guitars, violins, drums, trumpets and saxophones. In 1958 Ahmad  decided to form his own band, and ​Kilwa Jazz Band was born. He bought all his instruments from the money he made working here and there, none of the instruments were electric, he even made his set of drums, using tin barrels and cow skin.

Among the first recruits of this band there was Zuberi Makata whom he taught how to play the saxophone. Much later in the 90s, Makata was knocked by a car and died on spot, as he had two wives leaving separately, it took a number of days before it was realized he was dead, each wife thought the husband must be at the other wife's home.
The other recruits were Duncan Njilima a guitarist and Omari Omari. At that time other bands that existed in the city of Dar es Salaam and were trending were Homeboys Jazz band, Dar es Salaam Jazz band, and Cuban Marimba Branch Band, which was a branch of Cuban Marimba Band of Morogoro. The Morogoro Cuban Marimba band led by the late Salum Abdallah had many branches, for example, there was also the Cuban Marimba Branch of Kilosa. 
Kilwa Jazz started playing music in various styles including rumba, samba, bolelo, and chacha, imitating the Cuban bands. Kilwa Jazz Band soon became one of the most popular bands in Dar es Salaam. Ahmad Kipande and his Kilwa Jazz Band participated in many national events, one of the memorable was Kilwa Jazz Band performance at the state house on 9^th December 1961, the day Tanganyika got its Independence.  And on that show  they sang a special song praising Tanganyika for getting Uhuru, but also lamenting for the other African countries that were still under the colonials. The rough English translation of the song goes this way;

"O Lord, we ask you,

 Bless Tanganyika,

 We have got freedom

But hearts are sad,

Our comrades are suffering,

 The colonialists have still caught them in a web…”

 

 Kilwa Jazz Band was a very respected band, it was sent by the Tanganyika government to participate in the Independence celebrations of Malawi and Uganda. One of Kilwa Jazz most popular song was based on a phrase given by Mwalimu Nyerere in one of his many speeches, 'It can be done, play your part'

Kilwa Jazz band had many songs that were loved and continue to be loved by even the young generation music fans today, among them there was a song called Kifo cha penzi (Death of love), in short, the composer says; “The death of love is a bad thing, never pray for the death of love", and in the song we are also reminded of two historical facts, one line says, 'It’s better to die by being hit by a double-decker bus going to Ilala', in those years public transport in Dar es Salaam used red double decker buses. Another verse says 'It’s better to die by being hit by a trailer truck going to Zambia'. At the time during apartheid South Africa, Zambia had to use the Dar es Salaam port and there were hundreds of trailer trucks carrying cargo and oil to Zambia.

Some of the many hits by Kilwa Jazz Band included Mapenzi yananivunja mgongo (Love is breaking my back), Kifo cha pesa (Death of Money), Dolly, Nacheka cheka Kilwa leo (I am laughing today), Vijana tujenge nchi (Young people let's build our country), Rose wauwa (Rose you are killing me). 
In 1973, Kilwa Jazz Band was invited to perform as a curtain raiser before the performance of the Rumba music legends, Franco and his T.P.OK Jazz at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Ahmed Kipande died on April 27, 1987, after suffering from a stroke for a long time, but he will continue to be remembered for the good music he left behind in this nation.

May Ahmad Kipande Rest in Eternal Peace.

THE LOST GRAVE

 It Sunday and was my 4th and last day in Moshi, I had planned to leave Moshi around mid day and head for Arusha, things didn't work that way.
My friend Mr Mshana had introduced me to the owner of one FM  radio station and we had agreed that I would be interviewed in the radio's oldies program which was aired every Sunday from ten. So Mshana and I were ready that morning for that appointment, we tried to get the FM owner on phone and he wasn't answering the phone so suddenly we had  about two  unplanned hours in our hands. We decided to go visit the grave of the musician Jaques Issa Nundu, known to his fans as Issa Nundu, and say some prayers for him. 

Prince Issa Nundu

Issa was a Congolese musician who moved  to Tanzania in the 80s, for a short time in 1985, me and him were both members of Orchestra Makassy. Issa was a quite guy but an excellent singer, he was born in Nundu village in Uvira  in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the 23rd of July, 1954. His father was the chief of  Nundu village in Fizi district in Kivu,  because of this, Issa  would sometimes identify himself as Prince Jacques (Jack) Nundu. He began his music career playing with the group Bavy National and gained quite a following due to his sweet voice. He left the Democratic Republic of Congo accompanied by another great singer the late Kyanga Songa, the twin brother of another vocalist Kyanga Songa. In Tanzania Issa was a member of groups like Maquis Original, MK Group, Orchestra Makassy, Orchestra Super Matimila,  Bana Maquis,  Super Kamanyola  and  La Capitale ‘Wazee Sugu’. It was in this last group that his health  started deteriorating, it became so bad that his band decided to send him back to Congo. Issa left Dar es Salaam by train but in Kigoma he was met by his relatives who thought it was better if they stayed in Tanzania where Issa could get better medical attention and decided to take him to Moshi where there was  the famous KCMC Hospital. Issa was accompanied to Moshi by his sister and another relative who were both new to Tanzania. Unfortunately on Saturday 25th October 2014, Issa lost his life at the KCMC hospital, musicians and music enthusiasts in Moshi had to take the responsibility of burying Issa. I was informed of the sad incident, and was asked to raise  funds for burial arrangements, in the end Prince Jaques Nundu was buried in Moshi, a number of musicians contributed and so did Hon January Makamba the now Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

My friend Mshana was one of the people who had buried Issa Nundu, he knew exactly where the grave was, we went to the grave yard and to our surprise Issa Nundu grave was no where to be seen, on the spot where Mshana was sure they had buried Issa, was a new expensively built grave. We spent almost an hour checking and rechecking but in vain Issa Nundu's grave had disappeared. Mshana promised me he would ask other members who were there during the burial to help him trace the grave, if it is still there.
We went back to Uhuru Park for lunch and Mshana introduced me to his brother who was another music lover, a very nice guy who kept on making one joke after another. At around 2 pm I asked Mshana for permission to leave for Arusha.
I arrived in Arusha around 5 pm I had booked a hotel which was a walking distance from the main bus stop, I had slept early, I wanted to be ready for Arusha.

MOSHI DAY THREE

 About eight thirty in the morning my phone rang , it was Mr Mshana, he was calling to ask where I would want to be picked up by his motor cycle driver.  We agreed I would be near a local bank at 9:30. Sure enough at 9:30 to the dot the motorcycle was there and  we began the trip to Mshana's house.
After a twenty minutes ride from town, we arrived at Mshana’s home. He lived with his grandson, a very respectable young boy who invited me into their house and quickly offered me tea. While I was enjoying the cup of tea Mshana brought out his first surprise for me, it was a dusty box when he opened it, there was a beautiful Philips GF 907 turntable, it brought my memories back to the seventies when Philips company  had established an assembly line assembling Philips products in Arusha, the area where the company was, is still known as Philips by residents of  Arusha.  Philips products were very popular, we knew the Philips turntables by their numbers, GF 907, GF 932, GA 212. The company also assembled cassette players, radio cassette recorders and cassette tapes.

Philips GF 907

Philips 447

Radio cassette

Mr Mshana GF 907 was missing the stylus.  And Mshana brought more boxes, these were filled with vinyl records, from all over the world, I was more interested with the East African records and Tanzanian records in particular. There  were some very interesting labels. Here are some interesting labels;

The above labels was very interesting to me, the music and musicians were from Zanzibar, the more interesting part was the label, 'A.S.P.Y.L. (CULTURE)' ASPL stood for Afro Shirazi Party Youth League. Afro Shirazi Party was the ruling party in Zanzibar before the union with of the mainland ruling party TANU to form CCM, 

The record was published in 1976 a year before the merger with TANU. The information on the record shows it was manufactured in India by the Gramophone Company of India. Zanzibar and India have a long history in regards to pressing records, a history that started in the early years of the twentieth century, that included the era of the great Sitti Binti Sadi. The label opens many questions about the history of the music industry in Tanzania. 
 

Uhuru Stars label was owned by the Tanzania Film Company (TFC), a parastatal company that was expected to cater for music and film business in Tanzania.  After the breakup of the East African Community, TFC tried to establish its own record pressing company, the project never took off. The buildings meant for the project now house the Tanzania School of Journalism in Mikocheni Dar es Salaam.

Chance ya Moto by Maquis du Zaire

Another TFC label, there is a need to know why TFC had these different labels including the three other labels below

Vijana by Sunburst

Uzuri wa Tausi by Dingituka Molay, the same song was was recorded by Dingituka Molay with the Safari Sound Band of Dar es Salaam

Black Devil's Band was a Congolese band with an English name!

Mshana had hundreds of record, we went through each unfortunately we could not play any of them because of the stylus problem, am still looking for a stylus for the Philips GF 907, when I get one I will be back to spend quality time listening to these songs and also digitizing them.

Mshana then pulled out boxes full of audio cassettes, the expression of a child in candy store would have been appropriate if you could feel my excitement.  Just like the records, the cassettes too were of music from all aver the world, but I had to discipline my mind to deal with only east African records. Mr Mshana allowed me to take  some cassettes to digitize. I gave him some of the digitized music that I had
It was already dark when  I started my trip back to my lodging. It was a very satisfying day. 

SALUM ABDALLAH YAZIDU OF CUBAN MARIMBA BAND, TODAY WE MARK 58 YEARS SINCE HIS DEATH

 

Salum Abdallah Yazidu

 In 2019 a Tanzanian film proction company Kijiweni Productions started shooting the film Vuta N'kuvute, which was adapted from a story written by  Shafi Adam Shafi. It was a story of the love life between a Zanzibari boy Denge, who was also a freedom fighter wanting the colonialists to leave Zanzibar, and an Indian girl Yasmin who had escaped from her old Indian husband whom she had been married to by force. The story is set in Zanzibar the 50s.

In the film there was a part where Salum Abdallah and his band the Cuban Marimba from Morogoro, performed a show in Zanzibar, the show was attended by Denge and his friends. I was lucky to be picked to do a research on the type of music that was performed by Salum Abdallah and his band in those years, and eventually I was given the chance to play  'Salum Abdallah' himself in the film, which I considered a great honor. 

Kijiweni Production, without their knowing about the history of this great musician, had set the evening of 18th November 2019, as the time for filming Salum Abdallah and  Cuban Marimba Band on stage scene. It was exactly  54 years to the time and date of Salum Abdallah fatal accident!!!!!!

 On November 18, 1965 which was a Thursday,  Morogoro town was expecting a visit from the then president Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere and and the Vice President Rashid Mfaume Kawawa. The two top leaders were to officiate  the opening ceremony of a large and important college for the development of agriculture in the country, the Morogoro College of Agriculture, which is currently known as SUA (Sokoine University of Agriculture). The then MP for Morogoro Oscar Kambona was also expected to attend the big event.

The two big bands from Morogoro town, Cuban Marimba Band led by Salum Abdallah Yazidu, who liked to be known by the abbreviation of his name ‘SAY’, and the Morogoro Jazz Band, were scheduled to be visited by the country's leading leaders during their performances. It was obviously a great honor for the musicians, and due to the great competition between the two bands, the musicians and the fans of the bands were all in high spirits waiting for the battle of the bands on that important night in the history of Morogoro town.

 SAY, in addition to being a musician, was also in the business of supplying building materials, and at that time he had a contract to provide sand and stones for a National Housing Corporation project in Morogoro. At around six o'clock in the evening while preparing for the evening show, Ramadhan Mdidi who was the assistant to one of Salum Abdallah's truck drivers, came to inform Salum that one of his lorries was stuck in the sand in the riverbed where they had been digging sand, so it was wise to remove the lorry immediately lest it should rain. Salum Abdallah ordered the car to be towed. Salum sent one of his  musician Waziri Nyange to oversee sound checking at the hall where they were supposed to perform that evening, and he went with another truck to tow the lorry stuck in the sand. On that day, the Cuban Marimba Band were scheduled to play music in the Community Center hall, while their colleagues, the Morogoro Jazz Band, were scheduled to play in another hall in Kichangani.
Sadly about an hour later, a young man who was in the truck that had  left with Salum Abdallah ran back to Salum Abdallah's house and informed them that there had been an accident and Salum was badly injured. This accident was remarkable and for many years afterwards it remained an topic among Cuban Marimba fans.

Darkness had already set in and just as the truck with Salum Abdallah  was nearing Msamvu, the headlights suddenly went off and the car swerved and hit a curb on the side of the road, but the lights came on again, it was so quick that those on the back of the truck started laughing, but their laughter stopped suddenly after realizing that the door on the side where Salum was sitting was open and he had fallen off. They went back and found him lying on the road moaning in pain. At the same time, a white man in a small car, stopped by and picked two people from the scene, one went to Salum's house to give information and the other went to take a taxi which came and  took the injured Salum to the hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, the doctors asked Salim to stretch his arms and then his legs when he could, they assumed that he had not broken any bones but he was having were just superficial pain that would go away in short time, in fact they discharged him and told him to report the next morning. At that time X-Ray technology was still rare. Salum ordered his band not to perform that day, and went home, his friends stayed with him throughout the pain filled night.

The next day, early in the morning SAY was taken back to  hospital and underwent surgery and it was discovered that he had broken his hip and a piece of bone ruptured his bladder, which due to the delay in treatment things were now very critical. About one o'clock in the afternoon, he was taken out of the operating room and his friends who were waiting were told to go home and eat well so that they would come later to donate blood for the patient. They went out happily knowing that things will be okay. They headed to their club house and prepared food and ate happily. They even started to be a joke, one of them saying, "When the Arab recovers, he will come up with a very strong hit about this incident". Salum's father was an Arab who had moved to Morogoro  and married a local Mlugulu woman who was Salum's mother, and so Salum's friends used to call him 'the Arab'. Unfortunately, about four in the afternoon they received the sad news that Salum had passed away. News spread like wild fire and people began  flocking  to his house, they found that the dead body had already been brought home and was placed in a room that had Salum had prepared for starting a new shop.
 There is another version of what happen that day, the other version says after Salum was known to have died, the Chief Regional Doctor drove his car to Salum's house and parked his car outside the musicians house and started crying, everybody around immediately understood that things had gone wrong, so they were able to prepare the room for  Salum's body, so his fans could see him for the last time. It didn't take long for the news to spread in Morogoro and there was so much commotion that police were needed for crowd control due to the large number of people who gathered at the house of their beloved Salum SAY Abdallah.

The next day the situation became more difficult when escorting the corpse to the cemetery, it was as if everyone wanted to just even touch Salum's coffin  to show love, it was again  necessary for the police to be called to bring harmony.  Salum's coffin was a carried from his mother’s house in Nunge  to Msamvu where he was buried,  although the deceased had many trucks his fans lovingly lined up from his home to the grave yard and carried the coffin to SAY's resting place.

Salum Abdallah's song  EE Mola wangu (OH My Lord) that he composed shortly before his death, brought many interpretations and especially due to circumstances of his death. A few lines song said this;

O my Lord O my Lord,

Strip me of the world,

People of the world,

Are looking for ways to kill me ,

They want to bar my soul,

From Love and happiness,

And I give my greetings,

To my brothers and relatives

Of love and happiness

To ease them the pain

When the accident gets me

While crying over my dead body

I will tell God

How I was treated in the world

His fans believed he knew someone wanted him dead, that’s why he composed the song.

It is now 58 years since the death of Salum Abdallah Yazidu 'SAY', but Cuban Marimba Band songs such as, Wanawake wa Tanzania, Shemeji Shemeji, Ngoma iko huku, can still be heard in the music scene from time to time and even continue to be performed on stage with young musicians, some of whom even their parents were not born the day Salum Abdallah died.

And the film Vuta N'kuvute has reminded us again of the fame of the great Salum Abdallah.

 

MAY HE CONTINUE TO REST IN ETERNAL PEACE