MALAIKA
Here's
the whole song "Malaika" with
translation:
Malaika,
nakupenda Malaika.
Angel, I love you Angel.
Malaika,
nakupenda Malaika.
Nami
nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,
What should I do, your lover?
Nashindwa
na mali sina, we,
I don't have any money
(LITERALLY: I'm defeated
by wealth, I don't have any.)
Ningekuoa
Malaika.
I would marry you, Angel.
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
Ningekuoa
Malaika.
Pesa
zasumbua roho yangu
Money is troubling
my soul
Pesa zasumbua roho yangu
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,
Ningekuoa Malaika.
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
Ningekuoa
Malaika.
Kidege,
hukuwaza kidege.
Little bird, I
always
dream of you, little bird,
Kidege, hukuwaza kidege.
Nami nifanyeje, kijana mwenzio,
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
Ningekuoa kidege.
Nashindwa na mali sina, we,
Ningekuoa
kidege.
Source: http://www.yale.edu/swahili/songs/malaika.htm
Malaika,
Nakupenda Malaika... Ningekuoa Malaika... Here's
the whole song "Malaika" with translation:
Malaika star Fadhili William died
last Sunday in Nairobi at age 62. It's a song in swahili, a love song. It simply
says, I Love You , my Angle.
Authorship was disputed, the
Kenyan singer Fadhili William sang it a couple of times in the fifties, says he
wrote it and is
generally recognized as the
owner. Miriam Makeba (South African), made it famous with her early recording of
early 1963.
Abdulaziz Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi
Abdulaziz.Lodhi@afro.uu.se
Dept. of Asian & African Languages Uppsala University, Homepage:"http://www.afro.uu.se"
wrote recently on Namaskar-Africana:
Malaika was composed by a
mechanic called Adam Salim of Nairobi (born 1916). He composed
the song in 1945 for his very beautiful girlfriend Halima Ramadhani Maruwa. The
parents of both of them disapproved of their relationship, and Halima was forced
by her parents to marry an Asian tajiri. Adam
Salim & Trio at many clubs in Kenya & Tanganyika singing about 15 other
songs by Adam. In 1959, the young Fadhili Williams of Nairobi who had played
mandolin briefly with Adam & Trio recorded Malaika at the now deffunct
Columbia east african Music Co. Adam got SIXTY shillings for that!!!
Adam was later involved in a bad accident, was hospitalised for 3 yrs in
Nairobi, moved to Moshi where his parents then lived. Laterer he worked for 25
yrs as a bicycle fundi at the Kilombero Sugar Factory in Morogoro and moved back
to Moshi with his 2nd wife & kids.
In 1986, the SUNDAY NEWS of Dsm
initiated an extensive investigation into this Malaika
thing after the widow of the Kenyan artist Frank Charo claimed that her husband
was the composer of Malaika. Of course Fadhili denied it oficially at a concert
at the Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar in May 86. This affair was publicised much in
the EA media in 86 with pictures of Adam and Halima & Halima's children
& grandchildren.Fadhili won the fight and has the total copyright - he's
been unable to produce his angel though!
Halima & many others have
testified that Adam Salim wrote Malaika for her. I was told this way back in
1967 by my mjomba, maternal uncle, Ayoub
Ahmed Ayoub Alarakhia Rangooni alias Ustad Mitu who had met Adam &
Trio first in 1948. Mjomba Mitu was a musician, singer & composer who worked
with several groups, both Asian and mixed Afro-Asian. He composed both in
Hindustani and Kiswahili, and played both the harmonium and the tabla. He also
taught music in Zanzibar and Dar for many years, and in the 50s he performed
with the Zanzibari lady singer Siti binti Saad (the first artist from EA who was
made immortal by His Master's Voice in Bombay in 1929 with the help of Sheikh
Abdulkarim Khan of Zanzibar who was the HMV agent there). My mjomba died in the
early 80s. His only song recorded originally on a 78 rev and sung by Siti, Baba
Pakistan Hindustani ee!, has now been reproduced by Bi Kidude on video. It's a
song about a young woman who is appealing her father not to leave India (where
she has her darling) and move to Pakistan. Ustad Mitu was in India and Burma at
the time of the Partition, and was one of the founders of the Muslim League in
Zanzibar. He went to Asia working as a marine engineer with the Cable &
Wireless ship that was laying the telegraph & telephone lines in the Indian
Ocean, and to visit the grave his father in Rangoon/Burma. (My mother's father
was an immigrant from Rangoon - that's where their surname came from - and he
died in Rangoon in 1916 while visiting his homeland.)
Incidentally, one other (much
more famous) Znz (of Malawian origin) on that ship sailor) with my mjomba was
the sailor Abeid Amani Karume who later became a trade unionist ending his life
as the first President of Znz.
Well, I've jumped from Malaika to
my Mjomba to Karume etc. My folks say I have this notorious
tendency to tell long stories which sound like lectures. I hope you've enjoyed
reading this.
http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/Today/Features/Feature44.html.
Back
Test file - Another
day in ...