MUSICIANS WHO DIED IN DECEMBER

 

tHE LATE ANDY SWEBE

Many people believe that the end of the year tends to be characterized by many shocking tragedies, it seems this is true in the community of Tanzanian musicians. Here are some of the tragedies that befell the music industry in the month of December.

Let me start with the night of December 12, 2010, that night Ramadhani Mtoro Ongala, a famous musician also known as Dr. Remmy Ongala died. Remmy died at the Regency Hospital in Dar es Salaam. In his lifetime Remmy Ongala went through several bands after entering Tanzania from Congo. He arrived in the country and joined the Orchestra Makassy band, a band led by Mzee Makassy whom Remmy used to identify as his uncle. Remmy left Orchestra Makassy and joined a band based in Songea called Super Matimila, for a short time he returned to Orchestra Makassy where at that time I was lucky to be one of the musicians in the band, and on the lineup there was also the great Mosese Fan Fan who is now also deceased.

Dr Remmy again returned to Matimila where he stayed for a long time with the band that identified itself as playing the Bongo Beat style. But eventually Dr Remmy left dance music and started singing gospel music until death. Dr Remmy was buried on Thursday 16^th  December 2010 in the Sinza cemetery, not far from an area named after him, 'Sinza kwa Remmy'.  On the eve of Dr Remmy's burial, various musicians gathered at Dr Remmy's house and played music throughout the night to bid farewell to their comrade. Just two days after Dr. Remmy's funeral, another musician who was riding a motorcycle that led the procession to the cemetery to bury Dr. Remmy had a fatal accident, he was hit by a car and died on the spot, he was returning home after his music gig, it was Saturday 18 December 2010.

 The musician was Abou Semuhando also known as Lokasa or Baba Diana. Abou was a drummer for many years and was with the Super Matimila at the same time as Dr Remmy. Other bands that Abou played for include Sola TV, Vijana Jazz and Diamond Sound. Abou was buried at his home village in  Kibanda, Muheza. The saddest thing is that, on the day of his death, Abou’s eldest daughter was getting married. Abou had also already written to the management of his band to ask for a leave because he wanted to rest for a while.

Another December death occurred at dawn on 28 December 2011 at the Marie Stoppes Mwenge hospital in Dar es Salaam. The talented bass guitarist Andisye Swebe, better known as Andy Swebe, suffered from an asthma attack at night , he was  rushed  to the hospital, but  Andy died. Andy started learning to play the guitar from David Mussa of Safari Trippers, after that he played in a small band called Oshekas until he moved to Morogoro where he was employed by a leather factory. One day Mzee Makassy's band had a gig in Morogoro and when he was invited on stage to play a bit, he pleased Mzee Makassy so much that he asked him to join the band, that was the beginning of Andy's long journey in music, later he went through Lovy Longomba's Afriso Ngoma band, at that time with Kassim Mponda, Raymond Thomas, Seif Lengwe, Sololo wa Imani, John Maida, Ramadhani Kinguti, Kalamazoo and others, then he moved to MK Group, later he moved to Bicco Stars, and the journey continued until he and Mafumu Bilali started the African Beats Band.  He later moved to the Kilimanjaro Connection band under Kanku Kelly and they toured several countries for several years with this band. Andy was a freelance musician without a band when death took him.

On December 15, 2014, veteran musician Shem Karenga died. Shem Karenga died at Amana Hospital and was buried at Kisutu Cemetery. Mzee Shem went through several bands including Lake Tanganyika Jazz of Kigoma, Tabora Jazz, and MK Beats and finally Tabora Jazz Stars, he was a very talented soloist, singer and composer.

Let me finish the article by remembering the musician whom fans of the Maquis du Zaire band and finally Maquis Original knew by the name of Mzee Chekecha. His real name was Mwema Mudjanga, he was the band's trumpeter but he had a swagger that eventually gave him the name Mzee Chekecha, he was also one of the directors of Maquis du Zaire and he died on December 6, 2013 in Amana hospital and was buried in Magomeni cemetery Kagera

May they all rest in peace