The other week I received a call from Kinshasa. The caller was a long-time friend from the early 1990s. We first became acquainted in those years when he came to Arusha with his Congolese rumba band. The story is long.
By then, I had already become an “Arusha vet”. I was in the employ of the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC). One early morning I received a call from a Dar es Salaam–based friend, the late Charles Mbandwa. Mbandwa had several businesses in Dar es Salaam, including clearing and forwarding as well as marketing promotion. On this occasion he had brought to Bongoland the late Pepe Kallé and his famous Empire Bakuba band.
The band, spiced with the pint-sized Emollo duo, had already enjoyed a successful stint in Dar es Salaam. He now wanted the band to tour Arusha and its neighbouring towns. The call was seeking my assistance in hosting the 20-plus group in Arusha. He knew I was the right person to handle it. And why not! He knew I loved music.
At the time, I was also co-director of the then one and only underground disco—The Dawnbreakers—in the basement of the New Safari Hotel. I also managed a semi-professional musical group, The Sounds of Serengeti, of “Buzi Langu” fame in Arusha. Above all, I had the infrastructural capability to host them. This included a spacious villa in the Uzunguni suburb of Arusha, along Serengeti Road. It could easily accommodate the whole group.
And, lastly, I had some control and leverage over the major music and dance venues in Arusha, including the prized Hotel 77. To cut a long story short, Empire Bakuba came and delivered unforgettable, epic shows in Arusha, Mererani and Namanga. All members of the band stayed at my Serengeti Road villa.
To facilitate their stay, I engaged an outstanding Arusha-based African-cuisine chef, Hidaya, to feed the group. They were so impressed by her culinary skills—so taken with her food—that, on departure, Pepe Kallé composed a special song in her honour: “Hidaya wa Arusha”. And Mzee Papaa—now in his late sixties and a vocalist with the band—had called to enquire about Hidaya. Sadly, she passed away a few years ago. May her soul rest in eternal peace.
