Malaika, nakupenda Malaika…
Malaika is arguably the most popular Swahili love song there is. The romantic lyrics of this song have reverberated along the East African coast and beyond since its composition in the 1960s.
Surprisingly enough, this love song is surrounded by a swirl of controversy. The identity of the talented musician who composed this tune is hotly debated to this day. Tanzanians claim that Adam Salim – one of their own veteran musicians – wrote it, while Kenyans rebut this claim, arguing that it was Fadhili William who composed the song. Other names like Miriam Makeba of South Africa have even been thrown into the ring! Despite where its composition origins may lay, we are not here to cast our vote in the matter. Instead, we are telling the story of the #KeMusician who was awarded the song’s royalties: Fadhili William.
Fadhili William Mdawida was born on 11th November 1938 in Taita-Taveta. Music run in his blood, as his father was a traditional musician. Yearning to scratch his musical itch, he joined his primary school choir. The adults around him quickly recognised his musical prowess; his choir teacher let him conduct the group of young musicians, and when he was 15, his mother bought him his first instrument, a Gallotone Champion Guitar.
Young Fadhili’s passion for music was so great that he dropped out of Shimo la Tewa Secondary School to dedicate all his time to the profession. He was soon scouted and recruited into the Chem Chem Kids Band. He performed at weddings with the group and even toured Uganda for a while before returning home in 1955. He got a job working as an assistant at East African Records. He had an eye for talent and could tell which musician or song would become a hit on the East African market. His boss, Eric Blackart, noticed this and promoted Fadhili to talent scout and sound engineer for the record company.
In February 1959, Fadhili joined the Jambo Boys Band as its leader and guitarist. The group was so popular that it was hired regularly to perform on radio for the Kenya Broadcasting Service. Jambo Boys Band was later renamed Equator Sound Band. Its members were truly the crème de la crème of Kenya’s music scene. They included Fadhili himself, Sylvester Odhiambo, Gabriel Omolo and Daudi Kabaka, to name a few. After his time in the band, he continued engineering music for other African artists.
In 1987, Fadhili moved to America in an attempt to break through the international market. Unfortunately, he lost all his recordings in a tragic studio fire. His time in the US was still fruitful, as he was part of the line-up of a 1997 tour of Kenyan musicians. He performed on 27th June in Boston City, captivating the audience with renditions of his hit songs Malaika and Taxi Driver. Later that year, Fadhili moved back to Kenya, where he continued performing in hotels around the country until his death in 2001.
Join us in celebrating Fadhili William’s legacy by listening to his iconic version of “Malaika”.
