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The Struggle for 'Real' Tanzanian Music

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The Struggle for 'Real' Tanzanian Music The struggle for ‘real’ Tanzanian music An anthropological analysis of the construction of national identity in Singeli Word count: 51 426 Anke Van der Stockt Student number: 01505730 Supervisor(s): Prof. Dr. Carine Plancke A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in African Studies Academic year: 2018 – 2019 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge my gratitude towards the people who have helped tremendously in the completion of this master dissertation. I have received a great deal of support from different corners. First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Carine Plancke, whose knowledge and assistance indicate a valuable contribution to the establishment of this dissertation. I am exceedingly grateful for our smooth and fruitful collaboration. Throughout the writing of this dissertation, her assistance steered me in the right direction, which culminated in the acquisition of better results. Secondly, I would like to thank Luccianner Sylvester and Hezron Meshack, my friends of Tanzania, whose help meant a great deal to me. They shared their views on the subject, connected me to important contact persons, appeared as interpreters during the interviews and translated the interviews in English. In short, without them I would never have been able to conduct ethnographic research in the first place. Additionally, I would like to thank my informants as well for their voluntary cooperation. They sacrificed a considerable amount of their time to conduct the interviews, which often lasted two hours each. Without their information, my research would have been pointless since no academical literature has been written about Singeli. Hence, the success of my research is entirely dedicated to my informants. I would particularly like to single out manager Kandoro, who planned almost all the interviews for me. Needless to say, without him, I wouldn’t have collected as much data as I have now. Finally, I would also like to thank my parents who granted me the opportunity to conduct research on my own in Tanzania. I am grateful for their wise counsel and constant support. They inspired me to never give up, even when things seem impossible. 2 Table of content 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 2 Methodology ................................................................................................................................... 9 3 Theoretical framework .................................................................................................................. 16 3.1 Globalization and identity ..................................................................................................... 16 3.2 Tradition ................................................................................................................................ 19 3.3 Imagining the nation .............................................................................................................. 24 3.4 Authenticity ........................................................................................................................... 28 4 Background literature .................................................................................................................... 32 4.1 Imagining the nation before independence ............................................................................ 32 4.1.1 Swahili culture ............................................................................................................... 32 4.1.2 Dar Es Salaam and its music ......................................................................................... 36 4.2 Socialist era: formal and counter-informal nationalism ........................................................ 40 4.2.1 Traditionalism ............................................................................................................... 40 4.2.2 Socialism and modernism .............................................................................................. 43 4.2.3 Commercialism ............................................................................................................. 46 4.3 Neoliberalism: politics of the local and global in Tanzanian music ...................................... 48 4.3.1 Policy ............................................................................................................................. 48 4.3.2 The ngoma impulse ....................................................................................................... 50 4.3.3 Bongo Flava .................................................................................................................. 53 5 Data analysis: Singeli .................................................................................................................... 56 5.1 History ................................................................................................................................... 56 5.2 The motors for change ........................................................................................................... 63 5.3 Categorisation: traditional and/or Tanzanian music .............................................................. 68 5.4 Exploiting difference: claims for tradition and authenticity .................................................. 72 5.4.1 Origin ............................................................................................................................. 73 5.4.2 Style ............................................................................................................................... 78 5.4.3 Content .......................................................................................................................... 85 5.5 The audience: contesting Singeli as image of the nation ....................................................... 90 5.6 Exploiting similarities for (inter)national success ................................................................. 95 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 104 7 Reference list ............................................................................................................................... 114 7.1 Academical literature........................................................................................................... 114 7.2 Internet Sources ................................................................................................................... 122 7.3 Interviews ............................................................................................................................ 123 8 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................... 125 3 8.1 Song lyrics ........................................................................................................................... 125 8.1.1 Mama wa kambo by Msaga Sumu .............................................................................. 125 8.1.2 Mwanaume Mashine by Msaga Sumu......................................................................... 128 8.1.3 Bora nioe Masai by Virus Mdudu ............................................................................... 132 8.2 List of interview questions .................................................................................................. 134 8.2.1 Audience member ........................................................................................................ 134 8.2.2 Artist ............................................................................................................................ 136 8.2.3 Dancer ......................................................................................................................... 138 8.2.4 Radio presenter ............................................................................................................ 140 8.2.5 Producer ....................................................................................................................... 141 4 1 INTRODUCTION After decolonization, Africa was thrown into the process of nation building, whereby each nation pursued different strategies, including negotiating, pursuing and rejecting modernism while sustaining tradition (Hess 2006: 1). President Nyerere, the first president of independent Tanzania, placed the restoration of culture at the top of his list. He portrayed culture as the essence of the nation. Thereby he aimed to combat the cultural consequences of colonialism and restore Tanzanian’s culture in its original shape. The revitalization of the past is exemplified in the rhetoric of ujamaa, African socialism. Ujamaa is based on four ideas: “the elimination of exploitation, the control of major means of production by peasants and workers, and the philosophies of democracy and socialism” (Hess 2006: 120). According to Nyerere, these ideas upon which ujamaa is built, were features of the precolonial African family (jamaa), which were corrupted by the advent of colonialism. Therefore, he pursued several strategies to eliminate the remnants of colonialism in order to emancipate the nation from its colonial past. In 1962, he established the Ministry of National Culture and Youth, which was
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