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Mkono mmoja is inspired by the songs of the legendary taraab singer and anti-colonial womanist, Siti Binti Saad (1880–1950)

www.critical-theories-of-place-studies.org

lyrics

Mkono mmoja haumlei mtoto. 
Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi miti. 
Mkono mmoja haumlei mtoto. 
Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi miti. 

Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania
Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania

One hand does not raise a child. Mkono mmoja haumlei mtoto. 
One hand does not save the trees. Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi miti. 

Mkono mmoja haufanyi mwili.  
Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi bahari. 
Mkono mmoja haufanyi mwili.  
Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi bahari. 

Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania
Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania

Mkono mmoja haufanyi usawa. One hand does not make a body.  
Mkono mmoja hauhifadhi mwambao. One hand does not save the seas.

Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania
Leo ni siku
Ibariki Tanzania

One hand does not create harmony. 
One hand does not save the shores.  
Today is the day, today is the day. 

We are together
Ibariki Afrika 
Tuko pamoja
‍

‍

credits

released October 7, 2025
“Mkono mmoja” is the joint creation of SIT Fulbright-Hays group Bola Origunwa and Matthew Wilson. They worked in collaboration with Tanzanian taarab musicians affiliated to the world-renowned Dhow Countries Music Academy: Mariam Hamdani, Mohamed Othman Faki, Sharia Isa, and Ali Al Ibrahim. The inspiration for “Mkono mmoja” is threefold. First, it draws on the anti-colonial tradition of the legendary taarab singer-activist Siti Binti Saad (1880–1950). The song thus pays homage to the use of taarab music and other Tanzanian cultural productions in legitimizing the framing and claim-making of ‘recognition justice’, or who and what is given respect and valued in society. Secondly, it draws on the historical scholarship of Kelly Askew and Laura Fair. They scholarship demonstrates how taarab and Saad's lyrics in particular convey vivid phenomenological scenes, rhetorical constructs, or metaphorical spaces. The melodic words and phrases relay such covert expressions to challenge social and environmental oppression while putting emphasis on the collective good. The group drew on these sources of inspiration to construct a song with lyrics that set off with the Tanzanian proverb ‘Mkono mmoja haumlei mtoto’ or ‘One hand does not raise a child’. The song relays the importance of employing art to relink social, environmental, and perceptive ecologies by opening meaningful conversations that address our problems in a collective manner.

School of International Training, Fulbright-Hays project.
Artifact #1 :: Creativity + Expression

Recorded in Stone Town Tanzania, Jul 6 2025

www.critical-theories-of-place-studies.org

bibliography
Askew, Kelly M. Performing the Nation: Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Fair, Laura. Pastimes and Politics. Culture, Community, and Identity in Post-Abolition Urban Zanzibar, 1890–1945. Athens: Ohio State University Press, 2001.

The lyrics to this song, wala hapana hasara, were composed by the legendary taarab singer and anti-colonial womanist, Siti Binti Saad (c. 1880–1950).

Recordings of the song and the musical score that accompanied the lyrics have seemingly been lost to posterity.

The lyrics for the song appear in the book by A. A. Jahadhmy, Waimbaji Wajuzi (Dar es Salaam: Chuo cha Uchunguzi wa Lugha ya Kiswahili, 1966).

In the Kiswahili translation Matthew Wilson conveys English meaning rather than a literal rendering

This version of wala hapana hasara is an AI-assisted reconstruction of what the song may have sounded like, based on musical compositions arranged and recorded by Mariam Hamdani, Ali Al Ibrahim, Mohammed Othman, Sharia Isa, Bola Origunwa, & Matthew Wilson, PhD FRHistS.

School of International Training, Fulbright-Hays project.
Artifact #1 :: Creativity + Expression

Recorded in Stone Town Tanzania, Jul 6 2025
Mastered Oct 7 2025 by intonarrative.com

This song is an artifact for the digital humanities project: www.critical-theories-of-place-studies.org

lyrics

wala hapana hasara [no loss]

Wala hapana nasaba mimi uladi fulani
Neno kama dharuba launguza kifuani
Jina lake wewe baba na jiwe liko kichwani.
Na jiwe liko.....

[There is no lineage, I do not belong
The word is like a blow, burns in the chest
The name is yours my man, and the rock is on your head.
And the rock is on your head.....]

Wacheni yenu dhuluma kunyang'anya masikini
Hasa wasiyosema wajinga waujingani
Kalamu yao daima ni wino wa kidoleni.
Ni wino.....

[Cease your oppression and plundering the poor
Especially those fools who do not speak, the fools among fools
Their pen is always ink on their fingers.
It is ink.....]

Haifai udokozi kuiba serekalini
Mabuku yao ya wazi moja moja la saini
Neno la mwaka juzi hungiya pekesheni.
Huingiya pekesheni.....

[Is it not wrong, stealing from the government
Their legers lie open with each and every signature
Something from years ago can always be investigated.
Can always be investigated.....]

Jamaa msihadaike hayo yangu yashikeni
Tanbihi muiweke isiwatoke rohoni
Kwa kidogo mtosheke haki yenu makarani.
Haki yenu makarani.....

[My friends do not be fooled, hold fast
Take this warning and keep it close to your hearts
You clerks should be satisfied with your due you clerks
With your due you clerks.....]

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