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Let us honour musicians and soccer players
2006-09-10 09:11:41
By Editor
In the euphoria triggered by Taifa Stars’ triumph over Burkina Faso at a crucial soccer match at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam last week-end, one thing may have escaped the attention of many people.
Radio stations dug from their archives, songs by local musical giants Mbaraka Mwinshehe Mwaruka and Juma Kilaza, in praise of the national soccer team.
Both musicians are dead, and dead too are some of the players upon whom they showered praises in their songs, composed over a quarter a century ago.
Players in the line-up who are still alive, and who were energetic young men then, are now in the league of the elderly in, or approaching the sunset of their lives.
It would probably be unfair to point an accusing finger at newer musical groups beyond Morogoro and Cuban Marimba jazz bands of the Mwinshehe-Kilaza era.
This is due to the simple reason that musicians cannot compose songs in a vacuum — to praise a soccer team, or any other grouping , whose players or participants have not recorded any successes worth trumpeting about.
The wide gap between compositions by Mwinshehe and Kilaza in praise of Taifa Stars, and the team’s impressive start in the African Cup of Nations race, speaks volumes of how wanting in performance our presumed soccer ambassadors have been, over the years.
The point is, though, not much has been done concretely, to acknowledge the contribution of high-profile musicians of the past, and a similar fate may await the younger generation.
If every time Taifa Stars ticks, we play and re-play Mwinshehe’s and Kilaza’s songs in celebration, although, curiously, the names of those in the line-up are irrelevant in times of timeliness, how come nothing tangible has been spared in their memory, such as considerably important streets ?
Into this inadequacy and unfairness may be chipped the case of the late Mzee Morris Nyunyusa, the master drummer who was a veritable Tanzanian cultural ambassador, and whose marvelous composition is the signature tune for Radio Tanzania’s news bulletins. How is his memory being perpetuated?
And back to soccer. There surely can be found a way of tangibly honouring players of yesteryear who did Tanzania proud, but most of whom have been cast into oblivion and leading miserable lives.
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