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

 

DAY 2 IN MOSHI, I GET SHOCKED

On Friday 20^th October 2023 I woke up feeling very refreshed, at about 9 am, I got a call from Mister Mshana my host in Moshi, he was checking up on me, and we agreed to meet at a tea shop that was very near the lodge where I was staying. The tea shop was a very nice place owned by an Indian couple, who made different kinds of tasty bites that were perfect for breakfast.

At ten we met at the tea shop and discussed our timetable for the day, Mshana had arranged that we would meet a 70 years old guitar player from the 60s who surely would have a lot to tell us on the music scene in Moshi during his younger days. Also this morning we had planned to meet Kaluu who was the member of Orchestra Zaire Success, the one I had planned to give the photo of him with his old band. It was at this time that Mshana gave me shocking information; Kaluu had died five years ago!!!

I had really counted on meeting Kaluu, who I knew had long stopped playing music but had information that he now had a small workshop where he repaired electronic gadgets. The news that he was no more, and he had infact departed five years ago was so sad and so disappointing. Penaa, one of Kaluu’s son had inherited his father’s profession and was running his father’s workshop, so we decided to visit him. We got to the workshop and were told he had gone out to look for spares. And we decided to got to the second of Mshana’s contacts, this was the 70 years old guitarist. When we arrived at our meeting point, we realized that the old man was now selling traditional medicine by the side of the road, he was busy and he told us to wait for him while he attended his clients, for sure he was quite popular because it seemed like the stream of customers just didn’t seem to end. We decide to go back to the workshop and meet Penaa, we would get back to the guitarist afterwards. Penna was back in his  workshop and he was a very friendly and welcoming guy. He confirmed to us that his father had died 5 years ago. I handed him the photo that I had thought I would hand it over to his father, Penna recognized his father, and promised to give the photo to his mother. I promised that I would try to meet his mother and get to know more about the people in the photograph. We went back to the guitarist, he wasn’t there he had closed shop.

Orchestra Zaire Success - Kaluu standing second from right

It is claimed that Orchestra Zaire Success, Orchestra Super Veya and Orchestra Fauvette, came into Tanzania from Congo at around the same time. Zaire Success settled in Moshi, Super Veya Settled in Mwanza, and Orchestra Fauvette put its base in Dar es Salaam, but thats another story.

Mr Mshana had arranged for me to meet another old man whose name was Pius, we were to meet at the Uhuru Park. Mr Pius was another very interesting person, he loved reading books. He would get a book and find a quite seat at the Uhuru Park and enjoy the book in the open fresh air from the Kilmanjaro Mountain. We  talked about books that we had both read and those we wanted to read. In our conversations, Pius told me that in his younger days he wanted to be a guitarist, but his parents were completely against that, so he ended up just being a music lover. Pius asked me if I had a copy of Salum Abdallah's ' Happy New Year song, luckily a few days ago, I found a copy  and the next time I go to Moshi,   I will make sure I give him a copy.
Salum  Abdallah started his first band in 1942 and called it La Paloma. He loved Cuban music so much that he ran away from his father's home in Morogoro and travelled to Mombasa, planning to board a ship to Cuba. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the second world war, and he ended up getting stranded in Mombasa, his father had to travel from Morogoro to recue him. Two years later in 1944 he started the Cuban Marimba Band, a band which went on to be one of the top bands in Tanzania until its collapse in the 70s. Salum Abdalla himself died in a tragic accident in November 1965.
One interesting thing that Pius mentioned was that he knew the original composer of the famous song Malaika.

Fadhili Williams is officially recognized as the composer of Malaika, but many elders in Moshi challenge that and claim that a mechanic known as Salim Adam, composed the song for his beautiful girlfriend whom he never got to marry as she went on to be married to a rich Asian.
I agreed with Pius that I would get back to him as he had promised he would even show me the house that this mechanic once lived when he was alive.

By this time it was late afternoon and we agreed to call it a day, Mshana and I  went back to the tea shop for a cup of tea. One of the clients that we met there was the owner of one of the FM radio stations in Moshi, we made an appoint for me to participate in a oldies radio program that was aired every Sunday at ten  in the morning. Mshana invited me to his home the next day promising me surprises….. I went back to my lodging and began documenting all that had passed in the last 8 hours, and wondering what surprises will Mshana have for me?

 

MOSHI HERE I COME

 ON  Thursday  19^th October 2023, very early in the morning I headed for Ngamiani bus station in Tanga, I was on my way to Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region, as soon as I arrived at the bus stop a heavy rain began, I just managed to get into the bus before the real pounding began. The bus I was to travel in had a strange name Channel One Express, right on time  at 8:30 the journey began.

 
 I have always  loved travelling, in 1974 in my younger more adventurous days, I had travelled on my Honda 125 CC motorbike from Iringa to Arusha via Chalinze and back to Iringa again, I did that twice, a distance of more than 1600 kilometers, enjoying all the way.
At about three in the afternoon I arrived in Moshi, I could clealry see the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, it was clear and cloudless. I  called my host to inform him that I had arrived, my host in Moshi was my friend  Florian Mshana. Funny even though we knew each other very well but we had never met, thanks to the internet. Mshana was a member of my very active Whatsap Group, the group members just talks about old stuff not only music, but mostly music, so quite interesting conversations arise now and then, about the music

Mshana directed me to the Uhuru Park a short distance from Moshi main bus station, and there he was waiting for me. When we met we clicked right away, it was then when I learnt that Mshana was a retired police officer, though he didn’t look very old to me. We talked a lot mostly about music, as he already had plans for my next day, we agreed on a rough timetable, the next day we would meet several Moshi elderly people. I particularly wanted to meet a musician from Orchestra Zaire Success, a band that was one of the top bands in Moshi in the 70s, I has a black and white picture of the band, I had blown it up and framed it, and wanted to personally give the musician this photo of his younger days, I knew he would love the present.
Mshana then escorted me to a nice lodge not far from there, a place I would be staying for the next three or four days. Moshi was going to be interesting

KASSIM EL SIAGI aka JOCKER BROWN A SOUL MUSICIAN FROM TANGA

 In 1969 a young boy who had just finished his secondary education in Kenya, returned to his home town Tanga. Soon after he formed a band and named it The Soul Flames. At the time youngsters all over the country were forming bands playing soul music cover songs by the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Picket, Sam and Dave, Sam Cooke, Clarence Carter and other then great stars. These bands had more than often names like The Famous Flames, The JBs, The Comets, The Sparks, The Groovemakers, The Barkeys, The Barlocks and so on.

The Soul Flames soon made a name for itself among the already established bands like the  Atomic Jazz Band, Jamhuri Jazz Band, Ricco Jazz Band and Doldrums Band, Amboni Jazz Band etc.
Tanga  apart from being famous for rumba music bands, also had the Taarab music groups which played in the "shungwaya” rumba rhythm Melody, who made this town the giant of Taarab music in mainland East Africa up to the Indian ocean islands of Comoro.

The young boy who started the The Soul Flames was called Kassim Baaliy El Siagi, at the time he was better known by his ‘aka’  Jocker Brown. Members of The Soul Flames at the time included the late Mabrouk Hamis (Babu Njenje) on the drums,  Jumbe Magerrow playing the Lead Guitar, Mohamed Mrisho (who is now the Lead Guitarist of The Kilimanjaro Band, was then the band bassist, Mohamed Msimbazi was on the rhythm guitar and Jocker Brown was the band’s lead vocalist.
Jocker Brown who was very much influenced by Kenyan singers like Sal Davis, Ismail Jingo,  Kali The Bushman,  made the Soul Flames  music be centered mostly into soul music. Oh yes those were great days in Tanga

 

From Left: Jumbe Magerrow, partly hidden Mohamed Msimbazi and Mohamed Mrisho, Sal Hero and behind the microphone is Jocker Brown (1970)

TANGA DAY THREE...I MEET THE WAGOSI

 I woke up in the morning of day two, very excited, I was going to meet the 'Wagosi wa kaya'- the men of the house. Before coming to Tanga I had contacted some old comrades and told them about my trip, one of the comrades I had contacted was Kassim Siaggy whom we had met and played soul music together at Klerruu Teacher’s college in 1972, you will know more about him later in this blog. I was later told by the elders that Kassim’s father was a great football player in the 60s.

I also contacted Clement Mang’enya who was my class mate when we still children in Mbeya in 1964. His father was then the Regional Mines Officer, his uncle Erasto Mang’enya was the chief of the Wabondei, one of the major tribes from Tanga,  and he  was also the first African Deputy Speaker of the Parliament in 1960.  Clement is a publisher of a magazine known as Sauti ya Tanga . His contacts were going to be valueable to my trip.

I also contacted Wallace Mkello another collegemate in the 70s. Wallace’s father Victor Mkello was one of the earliest politicians in Tanga, one of the first members of TANU Party (Tanganyika African National Union) back in the 50s, he later became an Area Commissioner in various districts in the country. Wallace, himself now a retired teacher, is the CCM Party Chairman of Kisosora South Ward in Tanga. Wallace had organized for me to meet several elderly people who were music fans in the past. Wallace and his comrades were waiting for me under the shade of a tree, it was a hot day. I was introduced to Oliver Waziri, Azaria Mwinde who was also a radio presenter on a Christian local radio station, Godfrey Chowa  and later Frank Sekihota, after the introduction, what followed was an amazing experience of knowing Tanga and its people before 70s.  I concluded that these elders knew so much about Tanga and would add great value to the Tanga Urithi Museum, and so we also discussed how best they could help Tanga Museum collect more information on Tanga. By the time were through with that very informative meeting, they had elected their chairman and were ready to work with Tanga Urithi museum, I was to talk to the museum on how this could start taking place. In the afternoon I went to Ziggy Said’s place and gave him the flash disk with about 54 Atomic Jazz Songs.
And then I went to Tanga Urith Museum and gave  a feed aback about my meeting with the Tanga elders and also presented to the museum a framed photo of two famous musicians from Tanga, Mabrouk Khamis, who was famously known as ‘Babu Njenje’ and Tatu Said Msengi who was better known as Bi Shakila.

Mabrouk Khamis (Babu Njenje) - Tatu Said (Bi Shakila)

Both these musicians were born in Pangani on 14^th June 1947.  Mabrouk’s mother breasts were not producing milk, so Mabrouk began life being breast fed by Tatu’s mother. And they all went to become famous singers. Tatu Saidi Msengi, Bi Shakila died on 19^th August 2016 and Mabrouk Khamis Omar died on 24^th May 2020.  I definitely had to come back to Tanga  there was still so much to work on. Next stop Moshi, Kilimanjaro Region. Thank you ILAM

 

 

ROB HOOIJER VISITS KITIME MUSIC ARCHIVE

 

Rob Hooijer

ON the 9th November 2023, the archive had a suprise visitor, it was an old friend Robert Hooijer. It was an honour to have been visited by such a great figure in the intellectual property ream in Africa. Robert Hooijer is an expert in the administration of copyrights, music business management and serving developing countries across the diaspora. A retired CEO of SAMRO, former Director for African Affairs of CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) and former Interim Director General of CISAC, he currently serves as a Senior Consultant Sub-Sahara Africa for IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) in their development initiatives for the collective management of performance rights in sound recordings, music videos and related matters, as well as part-time Consultant to AISGE (Artistas Intérpretes, Entidad de Gestión de Derechos de Propiedad Intelectual) in their Sub-Saharan Africa collective management support endeavors.

THANK YOU RHODES UNIVERSITY- GRAHAMSTOWN SA

John Kitime the founder and Managing Director of the Kitime Music Archive, in the month of October 2023, has been on a two week tour covering three regions, Tanga, Kilimanjaro and Arusha Regions. The tour has enabled the archive get interviews, music artifacts like audio cassettes, video cassettes and 2 TB of music in digital format. The trip also broadened the Archive’s network. Thanks to the International Library of African Music (ILAM) of Rhodes University of Grahamstown, South Africa, for funding the research tour possible.

Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey, ILAM is one of the world’s great repositories of African music. A research institution devoted to the study of music and oral arts in Africa, it preserves thousands of historical recordings going back to 1929 and supports contemporary fieldwork. The majority of its collections are digitized and accessible on its website www.ru.ac.za/ilam.
Now let us hear John Kitime’s story.

“The journey began in Dar es Salaam at dawn on the 16^th October, as I live on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam; I had to find a place to sleep near the RATCO bus station. On time the uneventful journey began and at about two o’clock in the afternoon we arrived in Tanga. I have always loved Tanga, when I was young we used to hear wonderful stories about Tanga, because of the huge sisal plantations that were around Tanga, teenagers from all over East and Central Africa went to Tanga to try to make a living. Any town full of teenagers gets to be full of fun.

My first stop was the Tanga Urithi Museum, this is a museum that is working on preserving the  Tanga heritage.  The museum is stationed in house of the former German Governor of German East Africa, later to be known as Tanganyika.

The tour around the museum was interesting, but to me what was obviously missing was music heritage. Tanga has always been famous for its great music groups, Taarab groups like Lucky Star and Black Star, bands like the Atomic Jazz Band, Jamuhuri Jazz Band, White Star Jazz Band and others. In the museum there was just alone photo of the legendary  Taarab singer Shakila Said. 

The Tanga Urithi Museum management was very understanding when I pointed out my observations, we agreed to work together to give the Tanga music heritage a space in the museum.

 

 TANGA DAY 2

I had arranged to meet Mr Ziggy Saidi of Atomic Jazz Band at his home in Ngamiani ward. Atomic Jazz Band was one of the oldest bands known in Tanga, it started as Tick Tack Band in 1954 by a young man whose first name was Dismas, he was of the Bondei tribe. The WaBondei are the original tribe in the Tanga area, even the name Tanga comes from the WaBondei meaning ‘a farm’. The importance of mentioning his tribe is comes from the fact that at the time social groups were mainly tribal, as mentioned before young men from all over East and Central Africa flocked to Tanga to look for employment in sisal plantations, these young men formed social clubs based on their origin. Dismas looked for fellow Bondei musicians and in 1961, the band changed its name to Atomic Jazz Band. One of the main reasons why Atomic Jazz Band was formed, was because youths from the WaNyamwezi tribe from Tabora  by 1955 had formed their own band which was known as the  Young Nyamwezi Jazz Band.

My host Ziggy Saidi joined the band in 1965. It was a happy meeting, several years had passed before we had seen each other, even though we spoke on phones several times, and on two occasions it was on very important music matter, which involved money. On one occasion, a Norwegian film company wanted to use a piece of one old Atomic Jazz Bands’ songs that was titled Hafidha, and all ended well the few remaining members of Atomic Jazz Band got some pocket money. In another occasion a local ‘superstar’ musician had rerecorded their song and they wanted me to help them in the issue, the matter ended with the ‘superstar’ paying these old musicians what they had requested.

Atomic Jazz Band in the 70s. From left to rightJohn Mbula -Saxophone,Rodgers- Vocalist, John Kilua- Congas, Julius Kiluwa,John Kijiko-Lead Guitar, Hemed Mganga-rythm guitar, kneeling down Mohamed Mzee-Bass Guitar.

Ziggy’s health was not good but we had lots of laughs. He phoned another surviving member of Atomic Jazz, Steven Hizza to inform him of my presence and also ask him if he had any photos of their younger days with Atomic Jazz Band, unfortunately Hizza did not have any photos.  Another sad thing was Ziggy did not have even Atomic Jazz Band songs. I promised him I would give him copies of all the Atomic Jazz Bands songs that I had.