The Environmental Song

Tanzanian kids really do like to sing and they have two important songs. The first is the National Anthem, God Bless Africa and the second it the National Song, Tanzania.

I would challenge anyone to type Tanzanian National Song on YouTube and not to smile when the blue uniformed schoolkids blue sing their favourite song.

When my brother and his wife visited us and I took them to the small village school of Emanuel, where the kids sang the National Song bringing tears to the eyes of my sister-in-law because of the emotion the kids engendered. Emanuel was a new school in their second year of operation, so the kids were all young – new entrants or year 1.

Listening to the kids, you can tell they are genuinely proud of their country and of their songs. They, along with most of the population love their country warts and all, acknowledging there are problems of poverty, lack of infrastructure and the rest, but they believe they have freedom. When Tanzania was a British colony, things ticked along well, and from the eyes of an outsider, the country looked to be better than at present, but the people saw that freedom to be independent was far more important.

The first line of the National Song says: ‘Tanzania, Tanzania, I love you with all my heart.’

Our primary school environmental seminars were coming together well with the formal lecture, the role play and the environmental story but we thought some sort of environmental song would give the kids a break because they could well be sitting for two, sometimes three hours!

Mags had brought her ukulele with her and thought an easy tune was the old: If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands, so in collaboration with Loti and Joshia she wrote a simple song.

The words don’t quite fit when sung in English but the Swahili version was perfect.

First verse: We like to care for the environment!

Second verse: We like to plant lots of trees!         

Third verse: If a goat comes along, chase it away, shoo shoo!

The song became popular and sometimes as we were driving past a group of kids, they would stop to face us and capping their hands in time, they sang the song they called, Tunapenda.

The hit of course was singing along to the ukulele, which the kids called ‘Mama’s guitar’ and of course choirmaster Joshia had them singing the song delightfully.

The teachers sometimes added some lyrics, like the time some trees were stolen [showing they had value], so a verse was added: If a thief comes along, you catch him!

From time to time as my Swahili improved, I added some random, suitable stories, but the one that meant the most to the kids was talking about their flag. They knew very well what the flag signified, but I explained that it tied in exactly with our environmental education.

The Green signifies vegetation.

The Blue, water – the sea and the lakes.

The gold is for Tanzania’s minerals.

The black, central in the flag signifies the people.

We were well on the way to putting on a seminar that could be understood and was fun – not only for the kids but for us to present as well.