Mambo: Track by Track

‘Mambo’ is a Swahili word that roughly translates as the French ‘affaires’ or as ‘things’ ‘concerns’ or ‘observations’. The word covers a whole range of meanings and moods from personal to political, tremendous to trivial. Remmy calls the songs on this album ‘songs for the people’ and each one seems to express a different ‘mambo’ that people might discuss on the street corners of Tanzania.

There’s Tanzania itself— ‘Inchi Yetu (Our Country)’ and ‘Dodoma’, the new capital city:

Inchi Yetu

(Our Country)

For socialism
For respect
For love
For peace
Our country Tanzania
Congratulations to our leaders
For the good job they’ve done
For bringing unity to Tanzania

Dodoma

Dodoma is our capital
At our country’s centre
Our defence and peace are easy there

There are also the ‘mambo’ dealing with personal  affairs. At the beach or at the fish markets, the cry of ‘Hey socks!’ is often thrown out to Remmy. This is a gleeful reference to one of Remmy’s big hits ‘Mambo Kwa Socks’— things with socks (a Tanzanian slang word for condom). For about six months people wrote letters to the papers voicing their views about this song; some MPs tried to ban it, but most were praising Remmy for his fight against AIDS. Although it ranks as one of the most important songs in Tanzania on the subject, Remmy rarely sings it now. The track ‘What Can I Say?’ with its sometimes surreal imagery, is Remmy’s reply to the controversy which surrounds his original song:

What Can I Say?

(Niseme Nini)

That’s how the world is, no wonder
Everybody knows
Prisoners and rules
Among us
Managers and labourers
All are stealing
Eating each other, eating others’ rights
Eating each other, like fish
What can I say?
Nothing to say
People fear my face
But my soul is clean
Promising no mistakes
But one day I will see God

While his concerns are rooted in day-to-day life and the problems that beset many countries held back by poverty, in ‘One World’ Remmy takes issues on to a global level;

One World

No more embassies, no more passports, no more flags
No more immigration, no more boundaries, no more borders
I say mankind was given, to use this earth
Of which today some are prisoners
Freedom fighters, others are refugees
Same man, on the same planet….
One man different colour, from the same father
One heart, one blood, one machine
Let us be one

By writing in English, Remmy has widened his potential audience yet further:

Living Together

We came together to this planet
So it I die, cry for me…
If I be sick, come to see me
And if you die, I will cry for you…

People come to listen to Remmy but they also come to dance. The language of Matimila’s hypnotic guitars and driving rhythms is universally infectious. Whoever the audience, whatever the subject matter, the music is cooking, or ‘mambo fresh’.