/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/MUSIC-KENYA: Death Of ‘Malaika’ Music Legend

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Katy Salmon

NAIROBI, Feb 20 2001 (IPS) - The death of Fadhili Williams, the man who first sang the world-famous love song ‘Malaika’ (Angel), is a big blow to Kenya’s music fraternity, particularly the older generation.

The song was made an international hit by artistes as diverse as Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, Boney M and James Last. More recently, a new generation came to love it via Angelique Kidjo and the Kenyan hip hop group Swahili Nation. It is still a firm favourite at Kenyan weddings.

Malaika, one of the world’s greatest love lyrics, was composed in 1959. It tells the story of Williams’s first love, a girl he could not marry because he lacked the required dowry. It has been reproduced in six languages.

Williams’ career spanned three decades and his music continued to draw crowds even into the 21st century. Despite his age, he was performing weekly at Nairobi’s Panafric Hotel until he became seriously ill with pneumonia in November.

He died in the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on Feb. 11, leaving behind eight children and nine grandchildren. His last child, aged seven, is called Malaika.

Among his contemporaries of the 1960s are Daudi Kabaka, David Amunga and the late Fundi Konde. To many Kenyans, their music recalls their country’s heyday, when Kenya’s cultural direction had a proudly nationalistic outlook.

Special club nights playing Kenyan and Congolese golden oldies from the 1960s and 1970s, or zilizopendwa (those that were loved), are extremely popular in Nairobi at the moment. Given the current economic hardships facing the country, there is nothing middle-aged Kenyans enjoy more that reminiscing about the good old days.

Kabaka and Williams were part of a group of musicians who were instrumental in promoting popular dance beats like ‘Pachanga’ and the ‘Twist’. They pegged their style on extended vocals and guitar play.

A tribute in the East African Standard points out: “His was a life of a commoner perpetually struggling to make ends meet, a life that could have done far much better had it been lived in a country where royalties ensure that artistes live comfortable lives.”

Kenya has a great deal of talent but musicians never fully realise the fruits of their labours because of piracy and unscrupulous music producers. Many live in abject poverty despite producing world famous hits.

“At best what most can ever hope to become is a mere name on the music charts whose fame lasts, like a rose petal, the space of one morning. At worst some have their lives gliding into that territory between a beggar and a desperado and die with their souls screaming from betrayal and neglect,” says the Standard.

Williams’ battle to establish authorship and gain royalties from the international best-seller, Malaika, is one of the most famous examples of the lack of control plaguing songwriters. Malaika’s success was mostly thanks to its exposure in Europe and the United States by South African Miriam Makeba’s cover version, rather than to sales in Kenya.

Makeba came across the song when she was visiting Nairobi in 1963 as a guest performer at the gala night to mark Kenya’s independence. Legend has it that she asked if anyone knew the lyrics to the song ‘Malaika’ that she had heard playing during her trip. Someone hurriedly scribbled the lyrics on a piece of paper, which explains why the South African singer got some of the words wrong.

Makeba also mixed up the credit notes in the song’s country of origin, introducing it as coming from Tanzania. However, by translating the song into English brought it to a much wider audience.