The Top of the Charts

I've been listening to a lot of East African religious music lately. It kinda comes with the territory -- the Head Mistress is a nun, the orphanage was established with the aid of a Roman Catholic charity, and its biggest supporters are practicing Christians.

Now, there are worse things in life than listening to East African contemporary Christian music. For one thing, it is all Afro-pop, with guitars tuned high and a beat you can dance to. In fact, the singers and musicians invariably do dance to it. For another thing, even though the songs that air on East Africa TV and on the radio are sung exclusively in Kiswahili, they almost always contain hooks that even the most marble-mouthed mzungo can sing along to. Even I can sing 'Yesu aokoa' or 'Amen, Amen, Amen' with a passable East African accent.

There is non-secular music, of course. Some of it is rap, some is soul, and some is really upbeat Afro-pop like the church music. And then there is Siku Hazigandi, a great song by a local Tanzanian singer named Lady Jaydee. To say Siku Hazigandi is popular is an understatement -- everybody loves it. All of the volunteers I have met love it. The dala dala passengers and teksi (taxi) drivers love it. Servers and patrons at restaurants love it. Even the ladies who run this orphanage love it -- conversations stop abruptly when it comes on and the volume of the television or radio goes up.

I am one of the Siku fans, too. I loved it from the first day I heard it and I still love it. If I get into Dar again before I leave, I am going to try to find a copy of it, although that may be easier said than done considering there are no HMV or Future Shop stores to pop into. Somehow people seem to get their hands on copies of it, though, and I am sure I will be able to acquire it too, somehow. If worse comes to worse, I know that Lady Jaydee sings at one particular club every night, so I just might get my buddy Samora to check it out with me in hopes of being able to buy the CD there.

In the meantime, check out this link if you want to hear a truly cool song: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJLxkofaAbs. (At least, I hope it plays the song for you -- the computer at the orphanage lacks a sound card, so I am trusting YouTube on this one.) This is not the official video -- the real one is quite professional and was shot largely on Zanzibar -- but it does give the words, if you happen to speak Kiswahili.