With a population of just under one million inhabitants in 1980, Dar es Salaam was still the “haven of peace” to which its name refers, despite two decades of Ujamaa austerity policies (President Nyerere’s “African socialism”), the collapse of the East African Community, the closure of the border with Kenya, and the costs of the 1979 war against Idi Amin in Uganda.
By nightfall, Dar es Salaam was ablaze with its highly dynamic live music scene, featuring more than 20 professional bands performing in the city’s nightclubs, playing what is known in Swahili as muziki wa dansi.
The 1960s and 1970s saw an influx of numerous bands from neighboring Congo-Zaire. Often hired by high-end clubs and hotels in Dar es Salaam and Arusha for fixed-term contracts, some musicians and bands stayed, including those who would later form the orchestras Maquis and Safari Sound.
Like other private bands, the Congolese soon struggled to sustain their performances by playing for local bar owners. While Maquis enjoyed massive success with its Kamanyola Bila Jasho dance style (“dancing Kamanyola without sweating”) in the late 1970s, their expatriate status and the changing economy led them to turn necessity into a virtue. They had to adhere to the socialist Ujamaa ethos by acquiring land on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, selling agricultural products at the Kariakoo market, and forming OMACO (Orchestre Maquis Company). Around the same period, Ndala Kasheba and other members of Safaris Nkoy merged to create the new Orchestra Safari Sound (OSS), founded by Hugo Kisima, a local entrepreneur and owner of the Safari Resort in Kimara, located outside Dar es Salaam. Among the public or semi-public bands mentioned earlier, these two private groups were the only ones that could claim the top spot in Dar es Salaam’s nightclub circuit at the time.
