Tanzanian Tourist Board

I've recently returned from a trip to Tanzania - a couple of days work followed by a week's holiday. I had a great time. It is a beautiful country and the locals are very friendly. I would love to go back and see more of it if I get the chance.

In the time I had available I limited myself to Fumba in Zanzibar - with a side trip to Stone Town - and Arusha on the mainland, with a side trip to the Ngorongoro crater and conservation area. The crater, formed when a volcano imploded a couple of million years ago, is one of the most stunning places it has ever been my privilege to visit. In the unlikely event you are interested you can find photos of the views and wildlife along with my other holiday snaps on Flickr.

The only disappointing bit of the trip was the inability to track down any live or recorded music, but I did visit a couple of music-related sites in Stone Town. The first was the Freddie Mercury Museum, housed in one of his childhood homes.  

The other was the Dhow Countries Music Academy, located up a rickety staircase in an alley near Jaws Corner and dedicated to music education and preserving Zanzibar's musical traditions. One such tradition is the genre known as taarab, and the Academy had a display devoted to the pioneering taarab singer Siti Binti Saad.

Siti was born in about 1880 in Fumba, not far from where I was staying, and became the pre-eminent taarab performer of her time (arguably of all time). In 1928 she became the first East African artist to be recorded for those new-fangled phonographs and she went on to record over 250 songs before her death in 1950.

I don't know that Arusha can claim anyone quite that iconic but Arusha Jazz, formed there by the Kiyonga brothers in 1970, went on to bestride the East African music scene like a colossus for the best part of 20 years after changing their name to Simba Wanyika.

"Nilikwenda Matembezi" - Siti Binti Saad

"Nakupenda" - Simba Wanyika

Interesting fact: tying your mother down during religious festivals was a longstanding tradition among the Zoroastrian community in Zanzibar of which the Bulsara family were part. Hence this song.   

And in unrelated news...