Nothing but positive envy for our beloved ‘Wazungu’ stars

Envy is one of the seven vices. In Swahili it is called husuda. We Chaggas say unyenyi. The Bible lists them in Proverbs Chapter 6 Verse 6-19.

“Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devices wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

Envy makes us visit witchdoctors “to get rid” of someone we dislike.

What about you dear reader?

I have always had positive thoughts about other humans. As a writer, you cannot be envious; anyway. Therefore mine is, positive envy.

In what way?

I wish our local stars (past and present) would be like some overseas stars, here. This column, once, mentioned Wayne Rooney, the footballer who not even aged forty yet has already released two autobiographies of his very successful life.

But Rooney is average, compared to the genius musician Paul McCartney. McCartney (might not be known to the younger generation of music lovers), but he is regarded as the richest living songwriter, estimated to value 1 billion pounds. His tunes were mostly written with the famous Beatles band that reigned from 1960 till 1970. In those ten years, they churned out memorable hits...making them leaders of number ones – twenty in total.

Anyone over 50 might recall Radio Tanzania (or other African broadcasters) dishing out Yesterday, She loves you, Obladi Obladah, Let It Be, Penny Lane, etc. The main composers were John Lennon – assassinated by a psychopath in 1980 aged 40 and Paul McCartney. McCartney’s, Yesterday, is one of the multiple recorded pop tunes, globally.

Two weeks ago, London’s Sunday Times published a long article about a new forthcoming book by McCartney. Nearing 80 years, the Liverpool multi instrumentalist, confessed he has always been asked to write his autobiography.

Clarifying, the veteran composer said: “Usually I was raising a family or I was on tour, which has never been an ideal situation of concentration. But the one thing I have always managed to do, whether at home or on the road, is write new songs. Some people, when they get to a certain age, like to refer to a diary to recall day to day events from the past, but I have no such notebooks. What I do have is my songs- hundreds of them- which serve the same purpose. And these songs span my entire life, because at the age of 14 when I acquired my first guitar in our little house in Liverpool, my natural instinct was to start writing songs. Since then I have never stopped.”

A long quote from a guy who has 150 published songs. Other sources lists 500 or 800!

His book, out before Christmas is going to cost at least 70 pounds; almost 100 dollars, per copy.

Reflect on that.

A man who never got a degree. Just secondary school. Why am I saying that? And why did I use the word ENVY?

Most of our local artists and stars claim to have not published anything because they did not reach higher education, hence find the whole idea of writing and publishing books too overwhelming. Not good enough. How can individuals with no University degrees like Wayne Rooney and Paul McCartney, easily, cough books?

Theirs is a culture of respecting documentation and literacy. This culture LOVES preserving knowledge and information in a written form.

McCartney’s book is simply called My life in Lyrics : 1956 to the Present. Published by Allen Lane.

Like he said in the previous long quote, all he has, are the songs. Each with a background story. Let It Be, for instance. It mentions his late mother Mary (died at a tender age of 47, while Paul was just 14); there are the streets where he lived in Penny Lane. Penny Lane is a beloved Beatles smash. Here a local ‘barber’s shop’ is recalled...

Let us pause for a minute.

We have kilos of Tanzanian stars, in art, music and politics. On the music scene, there is nothing much written about Mbaraka Mwinshehe. Patrick Balisidja, Hukwe Zawose and Taarab’s Shakila. Only a biography of Salum Abdallah available; not good. Not...g...oood!

If we jump across Africa? The only superstar who wrote her own autobiography - while still alive - was Miriam Makeba (1988, Bloomsbury). Osibisa? Fela Kuti? Tabu Ley? Franco Makiadi? Kenya’s litany of stars: Fundi Konde (Embe Dodo), Fadhil William (Malaika), Daudi Kabaka? None. In 50 years time – God forbid -these heroes might be akin to dust, ashes and twigs. Hardly remembered.

It is very sad and it is something needing a solution and fast.

Tanzania just won a Nobel Prize through Abdulrazak Gurnah the novelist from Zanzibar. That is an inspiration for us to “get busy”, as the Jamaican singer-songwriter, Sean Paul, said in his 2003 hit.