Traditional Tanzanian music falls in popularity, but demands preservation
| Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Muziki wa dansi 鈥� a uniquely Swahili blend of jazz, rumba, and traditional music 鈥� was born in newly independent Tanzania in the 1960s, on a wave of national pride. For decades Tanzanians swayed to these beats, broadcast by the country鈥檚 only radio station.
鈥淚t was all about love, all about unity, all about coming together and building a new nation,鈥� says Benson Rukantabula. 鈥淲hen you listen to the music now, you still have the same feeling.鈥�
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But not many Tanzanians still do listen. In recent decades, muziki wa dansi has been replaced on the airwaves by Western Top 40 hits.
Now, around 250,000 hours of Tanzanian classics 鈥� along with tribal dances and historic speeches 鈥� are moldering in the archives of the Tanzanian Broadcasting Corporation, on reel-to-reel analog tapes slowly turning to dust. The Tanzania Heritage Project, which Mr. Rukantabula cofounded, is fighting to keep this music alive, raising money to digitize it and make it available to the public once again.
鈥淓very minute that these tapes sit in the heat and humidity of Dar es Salaam, the quality is being reduced,鈥� says Rebecca Corey, another of the project鈥檚 cofounders. 鈥淎s the last of these musicians passes on,鈥� she adds, 鈥渢here will be no one to carry on these traditions if no one can hear the music.鈥�
King Kiki, a Tanzanian musical legend, has been playing rumba for 50 years. 鈥淎 few young people these days like my music, but not many,鈥� he says. 鈥淲ith time, they will come to appreciate it.鈥�
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