-
7/30/2019 Radio Tanzania: Fifty Years of Analogue Audio
History
1/488 |88 |
Radio Tanzania
Radio Tanzanias decades of
ethnographic recordings, afro-
jazz dance music, and key
political speeches are chronicled
in a treasure trove that must bedigitized for posterity,
reports
JONATHAN KALAN
On the far side of Dar es Salaams
railroad tracks, withering away in
a locked room of a nondescript
office building, rests some of the most
important artifacts chronicling 50 years of
Tanzanias independen ce.
Over 100,000 hours of unreleased reel-to-
reel tapes holding decades of ethnographic
recordings, afro-jazz dance music, and political
speeches used to fuel support for Africasindependence movements,
line the dusty
shelves.
The recordings have languished in some
cases for over 50 years, exposed to the heat,
humidity, and natural elements.
Yet with the help of a small group of
committed individuals called The Tanzania
Heritage Project, a cross-cultural and
crowd-funded preservation effort, this
could all change.
The group has recently raised over
$17,000 from 235 musicians, music lovers,
preservationists and cultural enthusiasts
in a campaign to digitize, restore, andpreserve the entire Radio
Tanzania archive
collection with MP3 downloads, a best
of compilation CD, and eventually a
documentary film.
Essay|
50 Years of Analogue Audio
History Rest in Just One Room
Blast from the past:Bruno and Rebecca listen to some of the
digitized recordings in Brunos office of the Tanzania Broadcast
Corporation building.
-
7/30/2019 Radio Tanzania: Fifty Years of Analogue Audio
History
2/4
PHOTOGRAPHY | JONATHAN KALAN
Above:For years, the Radio
Tanzania Dar es Salaam building
held the only recording studio in
Tanzania. Musicians from all across
the country, like the legendary King
Kiki, orKitambaa Cheupe so-
called for his habit of wiping the
sweat from his brow with a white
handkerchief when he performed
and one of the most famous muziki
wa danci (dance music) bands,
the Mlimini Park Orchestra, have
countless recordings in the archives.
Below:Bruno Nanguka, known
as The Librarian, joined Radio
Tanzania back in 1974, slowly
working his way up to the role of
Head of Library Services for the
Tanzania Broadcast Corporation.
His knowledge of the archives, and
the groups who recorded them, is
unmatched. Despite most of the
archives not being catalogued, he
knows where to find every last
recording. Yet he is the only one.
My colleagues, they have died or
gone away. Its just me, he says,
highlighting the pressing need for
preservation.
April 2012 | 89
PHOTOGRAPHY | JONATHAN KALAN
-
7/30/2019 Radio Tanzania: Fifty Years of Analogue Audio
History
3/4
-
7/30/2019 Radio Tanzania: Fifty Years of Analogue Audio
History
4/4April 2012 | 91
Jonathan Kalan is an internationally published photojournalist,
journalist and blogger specializing in the intersections of
business, innovation and social
development in emerging markets. In just 24 years he has
traveled to over 35 countries, worked in South Asia and Africa, and
collaborated with NGOs, social
enterprises, technology start ups, and media companies.
His work has appeared ine Guardian, Financial Times, Boston
Globe, GlobalPost, e Hungton Post,e Star(Kenya), Stanford
Social
Innovation Review, Destination Magazine EA, How We Made It In
Africa, e Christian Science Monitor, On e Ground (New York
Times
blog), and many others. He was a Finalist for the 2011 Diageo
Africa Business Reporting Awards.
Jonathan is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya, freelancing and
documenting stories of social enterprises, entrepreneurs, and
innovations fore (BoP) Project.
