Muzika ya Bongo and other reflections on leaving Tanzania

Lars and I both lived in Africa during impressionable  periods in our lives, and were shaped in many indefinable ways by our experiences then. One thing (out of many) that we share is a love for African music – Lars spent a lot of his evenings in Tanga listening to  Congolese bands in the Mwananchi Club and other Tanga hotspots (there were 3) of the late 60’s. I was influenced by the juju and hi-life music of Nigeria in the early 80’s – not to mention the incomparable Fela Anikulapo–Kuti. I think Lars developed his dance style in Tanga!

One of our goals when we arrived here was to discover some live music venues, and find some good local bands to patronize. So faithfully, every Friday night I would pick Lars up from work, we would go out to eat and then try to find somewhere playing music. We asked around and got some suggestions, but invariably we would go, and the venue would be deserted or a band would appear and start playing really boring music (a low point was a band playing country and western!).

Finally one night in late October, we went to one recommended place, had a plate of ugali and whatever, looked around at the few empty tables and shook our heads. Another futile search….but just then we heard the sound of drums from across the road. We ate up, found our way over to the Village Museum and a live performance of drummers and traditional musicians and dancers. What a show! It was about 7:00 by this time, and we were treated to a performance of dances from around the country, along with a quite dazzling display of acrobatics. So from then on, every visitor we had was taken to experience an exposition of traditional Tanzanian music, dance and acrobatics – but the scene was over by about 9 PM. One Friday, we stayed while a rather ancient looking group of Reggae musicians came on stage, and listened for a few minutes before exiting quietly.

Again and again, we would go to a place, have dinner, hang around and wait and then give up – we tried dining later and later, but we never could reconcile the Friday dinner and music scene.

Because it turns out that we were asking the wrong people – Lars had the idea that the young people around the office would know what was happening, but they were no use at all. And the radio was no guide – Tanzanian music radio oscillates between totally cheesy American rock and “Bongo Fleva” (a.k.a. ‘flavour’) – the Swahili version of rap, which has none of the multi-layered rhythms, harmonies and crazy exuberance that we learned to love.

But then the 50+ woman in the next office at REPOA(Mama Zuki) organized an office party and we realized that no band in Dar ever starts rocking until well after 10 or sometimes even later – and when they do amble on stage, they spend the first hour or so wandering through a random assortment of cheesy pop, classic R&B, calypso, country and western – whatever, just to warm up. All the bands seem to have an uncountable number of musicians, and they move from song to song without skipping a beat – never a break, just a seamless web of music, until suddenly the real stuff arrives, somewhere around 11 PM or so.

All the musicians dance as well – syncopated rhythms and choreographed moves, very heavy hip action, using that extra set of ball bearings that some people here seem to have acquired somehow.

FM Academia, Banana Zorro, Akudo Impact and Deca – we’ve heard a bunch in the last few weeks, and last Saturday, Zuki said we could find King Kiki playing on the New Bagamoyo Road and he was still rocking the place amazingly when we staggered home  sometime around 2AM.

But even with our new know-how, we had some spectacular failures – like the Thursday night we drove half-way across town to a rather sleazy hotel to hear some Taarab music (Arabic inspired Tanzanian music from Zanzibar), carefully arriving after 9:30 so we would be sure to get a seat (it was advertised to begin at 9:00) and finding no one there at all (they were still piling the chairs into the garbage-smelling parking lot that was the venue). By 11:00 we were falling asleep. At 11:15 the heavens opened and we all dashed for the tiny tent that was the only shelter. At 11:30 the Taarab band played 3 numbers and then were replaced by a band featuring about 6 large women in ball gowns – quite unbelievable, but not enough to keep us awake.  

Sunday afternoon at the Msasani Beach Club - a family concert featuring Akudo Impact

This pair entertained us lip-synching for the 2 hours until the band started up...

Even after all this time, we still managed to get what I think was 2 complete chickens for dinner, instead of the 2 orders of "kuku na chipsi" (chicken and chips) we thought we had ordered

So now as we gather ourselves together to leave Dar for the next stage of our journey, we begin to reflect on all that we have done, and not done. All that music we could have been hearing! All those people we didn’t get to know, mostly because of our limited Swahili (another regret). All those road trips we didn’t take – south to Lindi and across the Mozambiquan border, into the heartland of Tanzania and southwest to Mbeya and  beyond. Not discovering the Dogodogo Centre until so late in our stay and having to leave those boys just as I was getting to know them.  And I didn’t perfect my watercolour technique (where did all that leisure time go?).

"Prof" Semboja giving a little speech at Lars' send off

On the positive side, Lars made some great connections professionally and Dalhousie may even gain some new PhD students. I gained a new appreciation for the challenges facing Tanzanians in trying to expand their education system so fast. We had some fantastic little holidays, visiting many of the National Parks. We both renewed our love affair with the African continent, and are filled with the desire to see more of it.  And, we now have many CD’s of the above mentioned bands which will await our discovery when we get back home.

Lars giving Thadeus, his protege (centre), a few last words of wisdom...he may be one of the PhD students coming

That’s why we will come back to Tanzania – to continue our exploration of this amazing country. And that’s it for this blog – I think I’ll be too busy meditating and perfecting my yoga in India. 

See you all when we get home in July!

Molly and Lars

One last crazy sign - I wonder if India will be such a source of fun! PS If you can't read it, you'll just have to zoom in - I'm not spelling it out (hint: the last 2 words are "you fall", the first is "ballin'")! And I have no idea what actually goes on there...