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?