Mangwea’s body back home amid grief, chaos

Dar es Salaam. Grief engulfed Terminal One of the Julius Nyerere International Airport when the plane carrying the body of Bongo Flava artiste Albert Mangwea landed yesterday.

Music fans turned out in their hundreds to receive the body, and many had tears rolling down their cheeks.

There were chaotic scenes at the airport as scores of youth insisted on pushing the hearse that carried Mangwea’s body.

There was traffic jam on the stretch of the road from the airport to Buguruni, about seven kilometres away, as the procession snaked its way to Muhimbili National Hospital, where the body was to be kept overnight.

Commuters were seen alighting from daladalas and walking after traffic came to a standstill.

Relatives, friends and the general public will pay their last respects today at Leaders Club grounds in the city from 8am. Mangwea’s burial is scheduled to take place tomorrow in Morogoro.

Mangwea had gone to South Africa on March 26 for a series of shows and was scheduled to return to Tanzania last Tuesday, the day he died aged 30.

Mangwea burst onto the Bongo Flava scene in 2003 when he released his first album titled aka Mimi in a project managed by Bongo Records. As with many great artistes, it is impossible to calculate the full effect of Mangwea’s music on the Tanzanian entertainment industry.

From his days as a rookie who was discovered after he had escorted a friend to record at Bongo Records in 2000, Ngwair was responsible for a string of hits like Ghetto Langu, Mikasi and She Got A Gwan that showed his lyrical prowess. His entertainment career hit high water marks with the release of aka Mimi in 2003.

Most of the tracks from this album came as singles. Mangwea, who came through the ranks of Chamber Squad, which was originally from Dodoma, was a daredevil who stopped at nothing, and as he once confessed, he owed much of his development to producer P-Funk.

At a time when most rappers were into hardcore, he led the revolution by bringing the party mood and romance into Tanzania’s hip hop scene.

Songs such as ‘Mikasi’, ‘CNN’, ‘Tunavyo Roll’, ‘Demu Wangu’, ‘Sikiliza’ and even ‘She Got a Gwan’ were songs that were better suited for the party scene and it was no wonder that they became club bangers.