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Music Landmark

Remmy Ongala

1947 – 2010

Songs for the poor man

Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Tanzania Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.

Why they are here

He brought soukous into Tanzanian music and sang for the people at the bottom of it — poverty, AIDS, landlords — in words nobody else would use.

Ramazani Mtoro Ongala, known as Remmy Ongala, was a Tanzanian guitarist and singer born in February 1947.

He reached Dar es Salaam in 1978 and joined Orchestra Makassy, and later with his own Orchestre Super Matimila carried the soukous style into Tanzanian music.
Sources

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