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Sung and Unsung: Musical Reflections on Tanzanian Postsocialisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Kelly M. Askew
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Abstract

On 14 October 1999, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, the first president of the United Republic of Tanzania, died in a London hospital. In Tanzania, musical bands throughout the country reacted to the news by composing scores of lamentation songs (nyimbo za maombolezo) that mourned his passing and assessed his contributions to the country he helped to create. While elsewhere in the world Nyerere is affiliated with the ‘African socialist’ platform termed Ujamaa that he theorized in his political writings and instituted during his tenure as president, these lamentation songs are notably silent on the topic of socialism. This silence indicates the ambiguity with which Tanzanians today relate to their socialist past. As a necessary prelude to analysis of the nyimbo za maombolezo, this article explores the practices, policies and values promoted in Tanzanian socialisms (mainland and Zanzibar) and in the postsocialist present. Competing rhetorics are revealed in these musical constructions of the ‘Father of the Nation’ and, by extension, the Tanzanian nation itself.

Résumé

Le 14 octobre 1999, Julius Kambarage Nyerere, premier pre’sident de la Re’publique unie de Tanzanie, de’ce’dait dans un hôpital londonien. Partout en Tanzanie, les groupes de musique ont re’agi a‘la nouvelle en composant des chants de lamentations (nyimbo za maombolezo) qui pleuraient sa disparition et dressaient un bilan de ce qu'il avait apporte’ au pays qu'il avait aide’ a‘cre’er. Alors qu'ailleurs dans le monde on associe Nyerere a‘la plate‐forme «socialiste africaine» appelée Ujamaa qu'il a théorisée dans ses écrits politiques et instituée durant son mandat de président, ces chants de lamentations sont remarquablement silencieux sur le thème du socialisme. Ce silence révèle l'ambiguïté des rapports que les Tanzaniens entretiennent aujourd'hui avec leur passé socialiste. En prélude nécessaire à l'analyse des nyimbo za maombolezo, cet article examine les pratiques, les politiques et les valeurs promues dans les socialismes tanzaniens (partie continentale et Zanzibar) et dans le postsocialisme actuel. Des rhétoriques rivales se révèlent dans les constructions musicales du «Père de la Nation» et, par extension, de la nation tanzanienne elle‐même.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 1: African Socialisms and Postsocialisms , February 2006 , pp. 15 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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