Muhidin Maalim Gurumo and Hassan Rehani Bitchuka are two of Tanzania’s most well-known singers in the popular music genre known as muziki wa dansi (literally, 'music for dancing'), a variation of the Cuban-based rhumba idiom that has been enormously impactful throughout central, eastern, and western Africa in the contemporary era. This interview-based dual biography investigates the lives and careers of these two men from an ethnomusicological and historical perspective. Gurumo had a career spanning fifty years before his death in 2014. Bitchuka has been singing professionally for forty-five years. The two singers, affectionately called mapacha (“the twins”) by their colleagues, worked together as partners for thirty years from 1973-2003. This study situates these exemplary individuals as creative agents in a local cultural context, showcasing interviews, narratives, and nostalgic reminiscences about musical life lived under Colonialism, state Socialism, and current politics in the global neoliberal democratic milieu. The book adds to a growing body of work about popular music in Dar es Salaam and shines a light on these artists’ creative processes, the choices they have made regarding rare resources, their styles and efficacy in conflict resolution, and their own memories regarding the musical art they have created.
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Review
The Legacy of Tanzanian Musicians Muhidin Gurumo and Hassan Bitchuka is an essential book about east African popular music. Through storytelling that integrates compelling ethnographic accounts and secondary sources, Frank Gunderson meticulously examines the creative lives of two masterminds behind the popular muziki wa dansi scene. He unveils a rare archive of the undocumented history and practice of Tanzanian rhumba music. (Damascus Kafumbe, Middlebury College, author of Tuning the Kingdom: Kawuugulu Musical Performance, Politics, and Storytelling in Buganda)
Much of the scholarship on African music tell readers a lot about African musical styles and genres, but very little about the human subjects who create, perform, and use them. By examining the life, musical output, and style of Muhidin Gurumo and Hassan Bitchuka, while broaching along the way issues of politics, economics, and spirituality, Gunderson unpacks in a singular text a uniquely Tanzanian musical lifeworld that is rooted in an African worldview. This is a must-read text, and a pointer to an important new direction in African musicology. (Austin C. Okigbo, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Finally! Rhumba Kiserebuka firmly situates musical biography in the center of the ethnomusicological canon. Gunderson’s comprehensive ethnographic study of two great Tanzanian musicians and the trajectory of their careers—from governmental and government-affiliated parastatal affiliation to independent musicians—is a tour de force and will quickly become the standard for all historical work in ethnomusicology. (Gregory Barz, Vanderbilt University, President, Society for Ethnomusicology)
About the Author
Frank Gunderson is associate professor of ethnomusicology at Florida State University.

motw/The Legacy of Tanzanian Musicia - Frank Gunderson.pdf

Memory of the World Librarian: Calamitous Annunciation

2025-02-18