Meet arts council leaders, minister directs top artiste

Dar es Salaam. The minister for Information, Sports and Culture, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe has directed Tanzania’s musician Ibrahim Mussa alias ‘Roma Mkatoliki’ to appear before the National Arts Council of Tanzania (Basata).

The directive is meant to resolve a ban imposed by the council on his song ‘Kibamia’.

A statement released to media by the ministry’s communications officer, Ms Genofeva Matemu yesterday disclosed.

This comes after the national arts council recently upheld a ban on some of the songs of the hip hop star on the grounds that the songs were against Tanzanian norms and values.

This comes after the minister held talks with artistes on Thursday. The minister further urged Roma Mkatoliki to make some corrections to his new song and get registered to the national art council to which the artiste apologised and pledged to ditch the song.

“I today announce to lift a ban on Roma Mkatoliki. Having said that, he is now officially free to engage in music, but he should first register with Basata,” he explained.

Backing up minister’s arguments, Roma Mkatoliki further requested the local media outlets not to play his song, citing that the song was against the country’s norms and values.

Meanwhile, the ministry has also lifted a ban that it imposed on another famous Tanzanian star, Ms Suzan Michael alias Pretty Kind, an artiste who also a few days ago was banned by Basata from appearing in any commercial advertisements for posting nude pictures on social networks.

Commenting on the matter, the ministry’s deputy minister, Ms Juliana Shonza clarified that Pretty Kind had already written a letter to Basata to apologise.

“Pretty Kind is now officially free to engage in music. I encourage other artists to adhere to regulations governing the music industry in order to avoid being banned,” she said.

For her part, Pretty Kind thanked the ministry and pledged to comply with the regulations governing the country’s music industry.