Catalogue       Group                                                         A side/B side                                                       Year

Number

N 8              Zamu (Culture) Zanzibar                 Afro Mama Pts 1 & 2                                1978

One of the labels set up by the Tanzanian Film Company in its attempt to establish a national music industry. Other labels included Uhuru Stars, Sindimba and Kwetu. According to Alex Perullo’s Live from dar Es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy (Indiana University Press, 2011), TFC failed to create a credible industry as it had a limited distribution network for its and recordings and many artists preferred to record for Radio Tanzania because - unlike TFC -  it offered consistent airplay and publicity.

Many thanks to Thomas Gesthuizen aka DJ J4 from the Netherlands for sending in details of this record and a label scan in December 2013. He says this taraab song is “a tribute to AFRO aka the Afro-Shirazi Party which ruled the islands after the revolution of 1964.”