Tanzania music stories and histories
Ahmad Kipande was born in Kilwa. 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…
One of the guaranteed activities in any big school events that began in the 50s was ‘jiving’. This was a music and dance event to the tune of the then-popular South African songs. Jiving competitions began at the level of the inter-class competition and went on to interschool competitions. The school jiving clubs went on…
Katika aina ya muziki unapotea ni muziki wa gitaa baridi unaopigwa na mtu mmoja. Gitaa baridi ni gitaa lisilotumia umeme, wengine huliita Galaton au kwa Kiingereza huitwa Acoustic guitar. Chombo hiki husemekana kiliingizwa Afrika kwa mara ya kwanza na mabaharia wa kutoka Ureno katika karne ya 15, Toka wakati huo Waafrika kutoka pande mbalimbali za…
Kumbukumbu zangu huwa zinanirudisha Iringa nilipokuwa na umri wa miaka minne hivi. Nadhani ndipo nilipoanza kutambua kuwa wazazi wangu walikuwa wanajitayarisha kwenda dansini, nakumbuka wakituaga na kutumbuambia ‘Haya laleni sisi tunaenda dansini’. Moja ya dansi nakumbuka lilikuwa limepigwa na Cuban Marimba wakiongozwa na Salum Abdallah, nakumbuka kwa sababu kesho yake Mwalimu Nyerere alikuja kuhutubia kwenye…
In 2019 a Tanzanian film production company Kijiweni Productions started shooting the film Vuta N’kuvute, a story adapted from a book written by Shafi Adam Shafi. It was a story of the love life between a Zanzibari boy Denge, who wanted the British colonialists to leave Zanzibar, and an Indian girl Yasmin who had escaped from her…
MUSICIAN’S DEATHS IN DECEMBER Many people believe that the last month of the year tends to be characterized by many shocking tragedies; it seems this is somewhat true in the community of Tanzanian musicians. Here are some of the disasters that befell Tanzanian musicians in December. Let me go back to the night of December…