SAFARI INGI comes from the small village of Bashay in northern Tanzania. In this part of East Africa manys tribes have traditionally met. Safari Ingi grew up with his grandmother, his father being a Barabaig pastoralist and his mother of Iraqw origin. His early years Safari spent working as a herdsboy, getting in touch with most aspects of African rural life. As a young man Safari Ingi decided to learn to play zeze, the calabash violin of the Iraqw people. By watching and listening to experienced musicians he taught himself to play. After twelve to fourteen years of playing, Safari Ingi today has become one of the leading interpretors of traditional Iraqw music. The source of Safari Ingi's music is African village life. The emphasis here is on the close community in the village, the extended family and on religious and mythological aspects of human life. Most of these songs are performed in Iraqw language, a tribal language 2-3000 years old, being one of the oldest languages in present Tanzania.

But Safari's music also has another side: Taking part in the building of modern society Safari Ingi also makes comments on daily life in the country as such with his songs sung in Swahili, the National language of Tanzania. These songs reach an even wider audience, and the name Safari Ingi often draws the really big crowds when performing on political rallies.

Take these songs, listen and learn from African wisdom of life, but remember: There is more where it all comes from; SAFARI INGI.

AWE
I feel pain for Awe
Awe is looking for a wife
I tell you Awe Maasay Tlawe,
father of Awe
Sell your cows, help your son with money
for the bridewealth
The girls have started to leave
for town
(Awe's friend) Johann is only drinking

GAR AMOHOO' I KAH BARA YAMUWO
(Nothing is easy in this world)
If you are drinking, they will call you a drunkard
If you want to marry, you'll need money
If you tell your beloved that you will marry her,
she will tell you to buy her shoes

Oh, nothing is easy in this world

If you want to see the father of your beloved,
he will ask you for a cow
If you are doing anything at all
people will talk

Nothing is easy in this world

CHAMA CHA MAENDELEO
(The party of progress)
(Campaign song for the Chama Cha Mapinduzi - the Revolutionary Party)

CCM is the party of progress
Father of the Nation (Julius Nyerere)
has been the leader
But now he has retired
Giving way for new leaders

UMUÚ GAARO
(Everything)
If you have a problem, where is daddy?
When your pen is finshed, where is daddy?
When your textbook is finished, where is daddy?

Everything, (get it) daddy!

When you need to pay tax, where is daddy?
When you need to make a contribution, where is daddy?
If you have a problem, where is daddy?

Everything, (get it) daddy!

When you need new clothes, where is daddy?
When you need new shoes, where is daddy?
When you're sick, where is daddy?
Even when you want to marry, where is daddy?

Everything is needed
Where is daddy?

BABA WETU WA TAIFA
(This song which is another of Safari Ingi's campaign songs,
tells that The Father of the Nation, Julius Nyerere, told everybody
in the country to work hard:

Every person in society should
buy seeds and tools themselves.
If you see that your neighbour has a good yield,
you'll easyly get jealous and say it's magic.
But it's hard work.
So you'll better watch the seasons.

MANDA DO'BAYO
You are searched for, father, are you a hen?
We have returned father
The marketplace in Gendi
We returned at the time the cock crows
The house of Sige is in Kondoa
The house to the east
The tomatoes have ripened
If it is a lie ask the old men
The old men of Mamire
The witchcraft of Chola is well known
One is shaved by Chola behind the heap of cow dung

We have returned to Langwen Bura
We have returned at the time
of the market in Gendi
At the time af Maria's wedding
We have returned in the light rain

Tato Ua, are you going to finish us off?
That is for Tato Ua to decide
The ship engine on the water
Put us on the ship to Zambia
The place of the big Sige is in Kondoa

The mercy of Manda do'Boyo
Node Bea is the best
The parade of keha is left hand, the white house

(The song is about men returning from war. Sige, Langwen and Tato are ritual experts. Their ritual knowledge enable them to help people, but may also be used to harm them. These ritual experts prevented the men from returning home after the war. Manda do'Bayo is the clan that processes the most powerful ritual knowledge, and Nade Bea was the most powerful ritual expert until his death. When Nade Bea saw the problem of the men, he helped them to overcome the local ritual experts so that they could return home. The last line of the song is military language.)

UKICHEZA NA DUNIA, DUNIA ITACHEZA NAWE!
(If you play with the world, the world will play with you)
(This song is actually about AIDS, but also gives
general advise how to survive in this cruel world:
It says that the world is like a worn piece of cloth
So take care while wrapping it around you,
otherwise it will be torn.)

The world has many deseases, some don't even
have a cure
No. 1 is AIDS, No. 2 is "Seven Days",
if you don't get no. 1, you can get no. 2

SIKAY DAWI
Sikay Dawi, you are an educated person
with a pen in your hand
But you also have a strong fist,
coming from the Irangi tribe
They kill the samuu bird
with long feathers on its head

JAMBO LA MAANA
Listen here, you youngsters

Your father watched you when you were tiny
in your mother's womb
Your mama and baba were striving
Kept on striving for you
until you finished secondary school
even University

Now you have come back
you've got a job, you are drinking
Yelling at your mama:
Where's the food?

No, I tell you
Take care of your parents

KUUNGANA TANZANIA
(To keep Tanzania as one)
(Another campaign song telling about the election in 1985, when Father of the Nation made a wise decision to elect strong leaders in the country to fight alcohol and drugs and to keep the country together as one nation.)

TO TEKSTER PÅ NORSK

AMI NAAMIS DEDE

Ami, takk, Ami Dando Khaday
Ami redder folket i Arri.
Umbes døtre er tre
Men Awaki har størst trolldomskraft
Awaki Umbe Diyo

Awaki dreper folks barn
Det Dando Khaday har under seg
er seksti levende døde
i dyreham
Dando er lederen

Ami, takk
Folket i Arri takker Ami
For Ami lot dem få vite
Dando Khaday kjøper en antilope
Antilopen er mager
Antilopen spiser bønner
Ami, takk
Ami Dando Khaday
Det Dando har under seg
Seksti levende døde
i dyreham

Forklaring:

Ami er en mann som bor i Arri. Faren hans er Dando Khaday, moren hans er Awaki Umbe Diyo. Moren er ei heks som har drept seksti mennesker og gjort dem til manu, levende døde som opptrer i dyreham. De må arbeide som slaver for henne. Awaki Umbe Diyo har også drept mannen sin, Dando Khaday og gjort ham til en antilope. Dando var landsbyleder mens han levde, og har nå blitt leder blant manu'ene som kona har drept.
Ami er sønnen som har oppklart hemmeligheten om moras trolldomskraft overfor folket i Arri, som derfor takker ham.

EN DAG DRO JEG UT PÅ REISE.

En dag dro jeg ut på reise
For å dra hvor
For å dra til Arusha
Jeg kom til Sanawari
Det var klokka ett på dagen
Jeg møtte ei søster
Ei søster fra min stamme
Jeg hilste henne, på iraqw: "Har du det bra?"
Hun svarte, på swahili: "Jeg hørte ikke"
Så jeg hilste, på swahili: "Hvordan står det til?"
Hun svarte, på iraqw: "Jeg hørte ikke
Tror du jeg er din lille venn fra Mbulu?"
Jeg sa: "La meg følge deg"
Hun gav beskjed: "Jeg vet nå ikke det"
Jeg utbrøt: "Vel, søster"
Hun spurte: "Hva kan du betale?"
Jeg fortalte henne: "Jeg betaler ikke.
Men jeg har mangen god historie"
Hun sa: "Nå må jeg gå"
Jeg fortalte henne: "Søster, du er ennå ung
Du blir med i dyre biler, du blir med i raynos
Du tror du er europeer"

Det viste seg at hun er afrikaner
Nå er hun blakk
Tom som ei øltønne
Hun skriker etter oss som bor på landet
"Vi hører deg ikke, søster
Dra ned til Rift Valley
Der vil de feire bryllupet ditt
med mange dyr
Hyenene vil le, sjakalene vil gråte
Løvene vil brøle, fuglene vil danse"

Raynos = Rangerovere brukt til å frakte turister til nasjonalparkene nær Arusha.