Last week’s The Arusha News featured “When Hollywood Came to Arusha” by gifted photojournalist and colleague, Muhiddin Issa Michuzi. Michuzi has cemented himself as a chronicler of historical events in Tanzania. As a nation we are definitely feeble in this department.
Few years ago, I was researching on a Swahili novel, I am working on. I wanted newspapers of the 1981–1982 period.
I was told they were in the basement of the Tanzanian Library; filled with dust and (probably ants) someone joked. Eventually found something in an international library in Dar es Salaam. Note. Our pals in richer countries manage preserving information. Historical DNA.
Take the famous Niccolò Machiavelli.
His classic book The Prince has been studied by leaders and politicians for hundreds of years. Written in the 16th century, it has quotes like: “the bold would succeed better than the hesitant.” A quality of good leaders and politicians. You also need to be manipulative, easily handling people, bossy.
Niccolò’s house in Florence, Italy, is still preserved, half a thousand years later. A manuscript copy of his original book, sells at £75,000 – around 275 million TZ shillings!
Hatari! was filmed in Arusha in 1960, so Michuzi wrote, and “while it did not bag any Oscars, it captured … the magic of Tanzania in general and Arusha in particular.”
Folks!
Hatari! was the first film I ever saw, aged 7 years in 1962, in Moshi. My parents were huge fans of movies, music and photography; drove us to cinemas as a treat (if we did well at school) during weekends. Back then it was the invasion of the global internet – the cinema was a unique, special get-together, for families, friends and lovers.
Growing up in 1960–1970s, we had popular film halls: Metropole and Elite in Arusha (along today’s Sokoni Road, I think), and Moshi’s Everest and Plaza not far from The Watchtower.
Watching Hatari was popcorn stuff. Additionally, there was the invasion of drink called Pepsi-Cola (nowadays Coca Cola’s sister) akin to today’s trendy Fanta Exotic. The stars of Hatari included John Wayne and his wife, the cast of animals and some top African actors in the film mentioned them: “Twendelee!” or “Kaza Kamba!” when the team of zoo hunters pull in a screaming rhinoceros.
Those times whites ruled the screens. The sole black star was Sidney Poitier who I saw in Arusha Elite cinema, early 1970s (Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, released 1967).
Speaking of films in Arusha I was now at Ilboru Secondary School – and with school pals, Michael Kritsos, Tony Sarwat (late), Bandidos Sengati (late), and Rashid Othman – we frequented Metropole or Elite, passionately.
As years slogged by, and I became a reporter/columnist at Uhuru and later Sunday News, I had a more critical mind. Watched Hatari! again. The film shows the white stars as dominant and condescending.
They are in Africa for the buzz and exotic places (Arusha) – a play-ground. Black actors portray subservience. Swahili words are used to patronisingly command them: “Twendelee!” or “Kaza Kamba!” when the team of zoo hunters pull in a screaming rhinoceros.
The question we should pose is what do our 2025 generation film makers make of such an iconic production? Hatari! did not “bag any Oscars” but put our beloved Arusha–Tanganyika, on global screens…
Shouldn’t we be telling our “own hatari stories”?
Exactly what Spike Lee (the African American film director) advised when we asked why he does not make films “about Africans” while visiting London in 2008.
“We need to self determine, in other words: be self reliant,” insisted the Do the Right Thing creator.
Bless your eyes.
Jitengeneze if you speak Kiswahili.
