THE PIONEER OF THE EAST AFRICAN SOUND Franz Yosef Humplick 1927 – 2007

THE PIONEER OF THE EAST AFRICAN SOUND

Franz Yosef  Humplick

1927 – 2007

Frank Humplick with his guitar at his residence in Lushoto in 2005

Very few people are aware of the passing away of Frank Humplick the gifted singer, guitarist and prolific composer of many melodies which though recorded more than 50 years ago still never fails to entertain the present generation and stir memories of yester years for those who lived through those times. Frank Humplick to those who knew him and loved his music died in Lushoto on Saturday 25^th August 2007. Frank Humplick was born on 3^rd April 1927 at his father’s farm in Moshi.  Frank as he was popularly known was baptised as Franz Yosef Humplick. His father was a Swiss civil engineer and his mother was a Chagga. His father Yosef Humplick was among the engineers who built the Tanga to Arusha railway line at the turn of the 20^th century. Frank’s death for many outside Lushoto passed unnoticed. Yet this personality was a giant among East African musicians.  One has only to visit the record library of Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD) or Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) to see Frank’s collection and listen to his compositions which because of its music quality will live forever. Frank Humplick was a household name in East Africa competing with other stars of his time like Salum Abdallah, Mwenda Jean Bosco, Eduardo Massengo, Fadhili William, Fundi Konde, John Mwale, Daud Kabaka and many others.  Yet when Frank Humplick passed away there was no announcement in FM stations or on TV. A small column appeared in one of the dailies which most us missed. This is the tragedy of Africa. Very few African countries know how to honour and cherish its heroes, pioneers and artists.

Frank Humplick did not compose bubble gum music which seems to be the norm of the present generation of musicians, music that lasts as long as the taste of the chewing gum.  Frank Humplick’s compositions are all time classics defying time possessing the ability to store its melody and lyrics in one’s memory to eternity. Each composition is completely different from the previous one and carries that unique Frank’s artistry signature in the melody sweetness and guitar work. The flavour in the songs he wrote is still the same as it were when he entertained his fans scattered all over East Africa and beyond either with his two sisters - Techla Clara and Maria Regina or being backed  with Jambo Boys of Nairobi. Frank Humplick’s composition ‘Harusi’ which he recorded with his sisters in 1950s is the clarion of all wedding celebrations in East Africa. A wedding celebration is never complete until when the band plays this song to the newly weds. This song was later recorded in Sweden by the late Patrick Balisidja of Tanzania and the Archimedes a Swedish band in late 1970s. ‘Harusi’ along with other composition by Frank Humplick recorded again in recent years in Kenya by ‘Them Mushrooms’ now ‘Uyoga’ introduced Frank Humplick’s music to the present generation. These recordings by then young musicians like the Harrison Brothers of Them Mushrooms and Balisidja gave the songs a new lease of life and alleviated the songs to new heights in terms of arrangement and the use of modern studio equipment which added flavour to the classics.

Growing up in Moshi and attending Majengo Middle School in early 1960s as a young boy I used to see young Frank Humplick riding his motor bike with a guitar strapped on the back seat. Our school gate overlooked his mother’s house across the road. The house still stands today. Whenever we saw Frank in town riding his motor bike me and my friends used to shout his name. He was a popular figure with us boys as well as girls not because he was the pop star of the day but also because he had certain songs which appealed to us as kids. There was a song ‘Kwenye Kabati Kuna Nyoka’ (There is a Snake in the Cupboard) which was very popular with us because it was satiric depicting Frank as a school teacher teaching English to students who found it difficult to grasp the real meaning of English vocabulary. The class having seen their teacher passed out after being bitten by a snake remark that ‘the teacher is very dry’ a direct translation of Kiswahili meaning ‘mwalimu kakauka.’ The lyrics made us roll with laughter. There was also another song – ‘a, e, e, o, u’ the five vowels which taught children to read.

At home our parents listened to Frank Humplick’s music on 78 RPM discs played on gramophone with HMV (His Master’s Voice) label or on the radio. I remember there was a well patronised bar in Moshi called ‘Kishari Bar’ which used to play Frank Humplick’s music most of the time. Walking back from school we would stand outside and listen to the music of Frank na Dada Zake.  At that time young as I was not more than ten years old it never occurred to me that there would come a day I will strike a friendship with this pop star and we would be phoning each other from time to time nor could I imagine that it would fall upon me to write his obituary at a time when Frank Humplick was seemingly forgotten.

It was by mere chance that my interest on Frank Humplick was kindled. In mid 1990s Ally Sykes – entrepreneur, veteran politician, founder member of TANU and one Nyerere’s right hand men during the struggle for Tanganyika’s independence was writing his memoirs and I was assisting him. We had a series of sessions and when we reached how he met Peter Colmore in Nairobi after being discharged from the King’s African Rifles (KAR) at the end of World War Two in 1945 Ally Sykes told me that in his views he thought the most appropriate person to for me to talk to about that period was his friend and business partner of many years Peter Colmore. There and then Ally Sykes called Colmore in Nairobi and it was arranged that I travel to Nairobi to talk to him. I interviewed Colmore at his Muthaiga residence and had the chance to see his photo archive comprising of photos of musicians he had promoted. Frank Humplick’s photograph was among those many photos I saw. Colmore told me that he was the one who introduced Frank’s music to the East African audience in 1952. 

Colmore had seen Frank performing in Moshi in 1952 with his sisters and was impressed by his singing and guitar playing. It was Colmore’s view that Kenya at that time had a more conducive environment for any budding musician than Tanganyika in terms of recording studios, distribution of records and backing groups which were into Frank’s type of repertoire. At that time Colmore was recording artists through His Master’s Voice Blue (HMV) Label which was exclusively formed by him to record African musicians. Colmore impressed upon Frank of the fact that if he was serious and wants to develop his career he should move over to Nairobi where he would find for him a backing group. At that time Colmore had other stars in his bag – Fundi Konde, Fadhili William and others who in 1959 came to form Jambo Boys.

But Mzee Frank informed me that the songs of his memories, his favourite hit songs were the ones which he recorded not with Jambo Boys but with his sisters like ‘Harusi,’ (Wedding Bells) ‘Wanipenda Juu Kwa Juu,’ (You Love Me Lightly)  ‘Ponda Mali Hujafa’ (Squander Your Wealth Before You Die) and many others. Indeed listening to his music the songs which touched the hearts of many because of its melody and lyrics were the duets which he sang with his sisters. The songs which he recorded with Jambo Boys even with renowned guitarists like Fundi Konde, Fadhili William and Eduardo Massengo are not as captivating to me as those he recorded with his sisters though they represent the sound of Frank Humplick at the peak of his carrier. Back in Dar es Salaam I asked Ally Sykes about Frank Humplick. He showed me a very old photograph taken during his hey days showing himself, Frank Humplick and Peter Colmore taken in Moshi in early 1950s. Soon after, I travelled to Lushoto to see him. I knew Frank Humplick had an interesting story to tell.

Frank Humplick’s house is few kilometres from the town centre. It was raining that day and as I walked through the front garden of the house Frank Humplick was reversing his car from the garage. I immediately recognised him though he was now of advanced age.  Seeing a stranger in his compound he opened the car window and politely wanted to know my business there. I told him that I was a friend of Mr Peter Colmore and I was looking for Mr Frank Humplick. The first question he asked me was, ‘Is Colmore still living?’ I told him that we talked about him only a few weeks ago in Nairobi. He told me to wait for him as he was going to school to collect his grand son - Frank, named after him and would be back soon. I sheltered from the rain outside his house until when he came back and his wife opened the door and I went inside with him. At that time he was about 70 years old but he walked erect in his blue jeans and attractive woollen sweater.  ‘So you are coming from Colmore how is he doing? Frank Humplick asked me as I settled in a sofa in his cosy and warm sitting room with rain still drizzling outside.

The house and the furniture told me that Frank Humplick was comfortable. I had seen retired musician in Dar es Salaam most of them were rugged and tired struggling to make ends meet. I happened to have seen Ahmed Kipande the brilliant saxophonist and band leader of Kilwa Jazz Band few years before he died. At that time he was recuperating from stroke and he walked with a limp dragging his leg which left a trail of dust behind. He was a pitiful sight. I had seen Michael Enock the bandleader of the famous Dar es Salaam Jazz Band at his death bed his voice was hardly audible. ‘King Enock’ as he was fondly known by his fans was now a destitute living his last days on handouts. The single room in which he spent his last years and breathed his last reflected nothing of his talent, fame or the joy he had given to many listening to his craftsmanship when he played lead guitar with ‘Majini wa Bahari’ (Devils of the Ocean) as Dar es Salaam Jazz Band was known. Michael Enock and Ahmed Kipande both of them sadly died miserably as if it was a curse to be a talented musician.

Frank Humplick was different his house was well furnished giving you an impression that you were not in Lushoto but anywhere in the posh suburbs of a big city. Frank Humplick never considered music as his fulltime job and carrier. He played for pleasure reflecting the passion of his young age having started to record music at tha age of 23. When he thought he had enough of that, that is it ceased to be fun to play music he left Nairobi and came back to Moshi to engage himself in business ventures associated with his profession - horticulture and farming. This could be the reason that unlike other musicians, music did not fail him. As we settled down to discuss about his life he was disappointed that I was a teetotaller but soon his wife, whom I adopted as my mother brought a bottle of coke for me and some biscuits. This was to be the beginning of a long conversation intertwined with his guitar and singing that day and the beginning of my association with him and his wife which lasted for about ten years. I would from time to time call Mzee Frank’s house in Lushoto from Tanga and he too would ring me up to say hello.

Frank Humplick told me that one day Chief Thomas Marealle of Marangu called him and requested him to compose songs which would put the Wachagga on the music scene like other tribes.  There was at that time Ndebele, Shona and Zulu songs by George Sibanda from Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe, Manhattan Brothers from South Africa and songs by Lucy Yenga from Congo which found their way into Tanganyika and were very popular. This was the type of music which was played by ‘Sauti ya Dar es Salaam’ when broadcasting began in Tanganyika 1952.  About this time a person by the name of Hugh Tracey was travelling through the colonies recording traditional as well as contemporary African music. This music was broadcasted in the local radio stations in British colonies. It was Hugh Tracey who discovered Mwenda Jean Bosco in 1952 in one of his travels through Congo.

Chief Marealle thought they too could produce their own music in their own language as Kikuyu, Ndebele, Shona, Zulu and Congolese were doing. Chief Marealle thought that it would be ideal for Frank to record songs in the Chagga vernacular. Frank Humplick therefore began his carrier composing songs in Kichagga songs like ‘Kiwaro’ and ‘Wasoro’ but later sang in Kiswahili thus reaching a wider audience. His first composition was recorded by Gallotone of South Africa on the roof garden of the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) building.  The mobile recording van was parked in the street below while Frank and his guitar facing a single microphone sang and played his guitar on the roof garden. The sound engineer was a white South African lady. This was 1950 and was to be the beginning of a journey which lasted exactly ten years.

Among all songs which he composed it was the song ‘Yes No’ which in a strange way catapulted Frank Humplick into heights he did not even imagine was possible. In 1954 Tanganyika African National Union (TANU) the party of Tanganyika’s independence was formed. Mau Mau was raging in Kenya, in Uganda Kabaka was in exile in Britain and there was war in Korea. In this kind of political climate Frank Humplick came up with a song whose lyrics the colonial administration in Tanganyika and Kenya thought was smacking of agitation against foreign domination and therefore inciting people to rebel. The lyrics went like this:

            Uganda nayo iende

            Tanganyika ikichangaruka Kenya na Nyasa zitaumana

            Nasikia fununu wanavyoichanachana China, Kitisho!

I am a democrat I don’t want communism English Yes No I don’t know Kizungu sikijui

Wanyika msishidane na Watanganyika

In the early TANU meetings held at Mnazi Mmoja in Dar es Salaam before Nyerere mounted the stage to speak TANU would play this song through loud speakers to attract people to the meeting. Overnight this song became a protest song for nationalists. The song became very popular and was sung by people everywhere.  In no time Governor Edward Twining got wind of the message of the song and he did not seem to like the lyrics. On face value the lyrics seemed to be mumbo jumbo having no real sense of meaning. But if one was to listen well the song had a hidden message to imperialists either in Africa or elsewhere. The colonial administration became worried with the song particularly the mention of communism, China and the reference to British colonies in East Africa which were anyway already in turmoil particularly the Mau Mau uprising in Kikuyu led by Dedan Kimathi not to mention the agitation by Hastings Banda in Nyasaland now Malawi.  The government banned the song and Special Branch was assigned to make sure that all copies of the song were destroyed. A house to house ‘search and destroy’ operation was conducted by the police and ‘Sauti ya Dar es Salaam’ stopped to play the song which for obvious reasons was very much in demand by listeners. Frank Humplick received unexpected publicity and went down in history of Tanganyika to be the first artist whose work was banned by the government.

In my first visit Frank Humplick realising that I was into his music took out his guitar and played for me his old songs one number after another. I sat before this maestro soaking his music and as I watched him move from one chord to another plucking the guitar strings with all of his five fingers I could not help but wonder how magnificent he must have been when he was young. Not once did he falter or went off key. He did not glance at the scales he played in an easy manner of a professional as if all the chords were ingrained in his mind.  There were songs which he could not recall the lyrics and finding himself in this situation he would call his wife from the kitchen hum the tune and in no time mama would come up with the words. Frank Humplick wound up the show that day by playing for me the song ‘Ua Langu Jasmine’ (Jasmine My Flower) which he told me with a smile that he composed the song when he was courting ‘my mother’ meaning his wife. As he played the song I was sure mama was listening from the kitchen with a smile on her lips. She probably had listened to the song a thousand times each time sweet memories of those days gone by flowing back to her. Outside raindrops kept falling. When I rose up to go I told Mzee Frank that that would not be my last visit. He should expect to see me soon. 

It was not very long I was at his door step again. I had travelled to Mombasa and in a music shop specialising in old music I came across an audio cassette which featured 25 of Frank na Dada Zake songs recorded between 1950 and 1960. In that cassette there were numbers which he did with Fundi Konde, Fadhili William and Eduardo Massengo. These songs were from the Nairobi years with the Jambo Boys and the rest belonged to his early years in Moshi when he was doing duets with his two sisters. I bought two copies one for me and the other for him. In my first visit I wanted to see his record library hoping to see his own record collection. To my surprise and disappointment he told me that he did not have even a single disc of his own recordings. He went on to tell me that he had few of his records but were sent to Lushoto Town at a discotheque he owned to be used as decorations. This shocked me appreciating the fact that those 78 RPM discs were priceless and that they were fragile and could therefore be broken easily. So when I came across that audio cassette carrying his songs I knew it was a gift he would appreciate and cherish. How right I was. When I fished the cassette from my bag and handled it to him I could see his eyes light up and he thanked me profusely calling his wife from the kitchen to come and see what I have brought for them.

The last time I went to see Frank Humplick was last year. Othman Miraj of Radio Deutsche Welle came to Tanga and wanted me to help him in a radio program he was producing to commemorate 100 years of Germany presence in Tanganyika. Among other things he wanted to document was crops which were introduced by Germans in Tanganyika. I told him that the right person to see was Mzee Frank. Frank Humplick after completing his secondary education at St. Mary’s School he studied horticulture. We were amazed by his knowledge of different crops their historical background and their origins. At the end of the interview we had lunch together and after lunch he brought his guitar and entertained us. Othman Miraj had already packed away his tape recorder and microphone. Listening to the rhythm of the guitar as it flowed from the fingers of the maestro. I saw Othman Miraj hastily reaching for his tape recorder feverishly asking if he could record the music.  One of the guitar works by Frank Humplick recorded at Lushoto became the signature tune of all the programs he made in Tanzania. I am today the proud owner of that very rare collection of Frank Humplick’s music played at the end of his life that Deutsche Welle recorded at his house in Lushoto.

As we stood outside his house bidding farewells I remember mama to have remarked, ‘Mzee leo kafurahi sana maana sijasikia kukohoa hata kidogo.’ (My oldman is very happy because there has been no coughing today). Frank Humplick standing beside mama tall, hamdsome and elegant as he was did not show any sign of bad health. The audio cassette of his songs which I had given him some years ago got entangled and could not play. He told me this with sadness. I went to my car and brought the only copy which I had and gave it to him. This was the last time I saw my friend Frank Humplick. Not many people even his contemporaries were aware of his whereabouts since he bowed from the stage. Frank Humplick lived a dignified, comfortable and quite life in Lushoto. However he was an important personality in the community of the township and in the local church. This is the reason why his funeral was well attended. I have been informed that an album carrying the same 25 songs by Frank Humplick which I had discovered and bought in Mombasa was cut in USA. Ambassador Mohamed Maharage Juma (Tanzania’s envoy to Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who I share same taste in music since our school days saw the album in New York at the residence of the late Ambassador Tatu Nuru a contemporary of Frank Humplick. When I asked Frank Humplick about this he said he was not aware of the album much as he was oblivious of the fact that his audio cassettes were selling like hot cake in Kenya. 

(Mohamed Said 9^th September 2007)