Mbaraka Mwinshehe and the Shilole beating furore

Those who have been discussing that event can be grouped into two categories, while some could lie out of this scope, one focusing on beating domestic partners, and another more concerned with the extent of the violence meted on Shilole. Can the issue be discussed singularly as a matter of principle?

One incontestably authoritative voice within the music fraternity would be classical Tanzanian soloist and social issues instructor Mbaraka Mwinshehe, whose songs covered nearly everything from politics to nutrition, while his contributions on conjugal issues were incomparable in depth and candor. There is a number he contributed in mid-career saying ‘nimefurahi uliponiuliza, kwanini leo nimekupiga sana…’ implying that until the beating was over, the husband – played by the musician – had not even said what the issue was about. That is the crux of the matter, that husbands will beat wives and explain the act later.

Only on that premise is it possible to look into the moral issues involved with beatings, and then how it relates to the music profession, as Shilole’s experiences hit the airwaves and remained there for a while not because of the incident, but the person. The said husband is basically an unknown quantity except for ardent followers of the musician rather than the general public, but his name is also becoming ingrained in the public conscience as it keeps coming up in relation to the incident. He became a celebrity by default, such that at one moment an FM radio station show participant said he was to be a guest at the ‘Kariakoo derby.’

While plenty can be said from a moral, cultural or religious point of view about domestic violence, the really pertinent issue is how to live with a music icon in an environment like Dar es Salaam, where all those traditional norms of fidelity are more observed in the breach. The question is also whether Shilole loses any esteem as a musician and role model following this event, or is likely to emerge as a heroine among so many quarters, and definitely that would explain her posting the photos on ’Whatsapp,’ etc. The photos serve to underline the veracity of an accusation, to prove she has cause to abandon the husband.

Put differently, the moral that the artiste seeks to underline is that since the premise of her husband’s apparently intense dissatisfaction with her conduct isn’t public, and it is the beating that is on the public arena, she will emerge the moral victor and the husband a pitiful, envious assailant. It is the sort of thing one gets in a Taarab show except that it went somewhat too far, not just raising ire about putting the marriage into question mark – where the singer would then insist it is stable, whatever ill wishers are saying to demonstrate the precise opposite. Taarab ethos hinges on ill mouthing lies, not saying the truth.

In that sense despite her ‘Whatsapp’ image building effort, Shilole is definitely the loser in this contention as neither Taarab nor routine dance music, or for that matter commonplace culture, would lay the blame squarely on the husband. Many may have raised their doubts on the wisdom of his rather pronounced violence, and indeed try to figure out what exactly the hubby expected from conjugal knots with an icon of rhythmic sounds like ‘…ukintekenya,’ about which anything can be taken a little further. It’s obvious.

Looking at the issue from that perspective, one wonders if there was anything that Shilole did that she would not have done routinely. That doesn’t quite appear to be the case but diminishing patience on the part of hubby, which also means greater indifference of his wife to his probing, and virtually irrelevant questions. All signs are that he lost patience with his wife - but knows fully what her stage career entails.

In that sense it must be realized that this isn’t a Mbaraka Mwinshehe kind of environment, of a domestic list of do’s and don’ts that the wife may have infringed, for instance being inhospitable to guests, hiding food although there is no shortage of it, infuriating the husband. Here we are talking about ‘contractual marriage,’ where the wife is free to engage in a blatantly see-through stage and social environment, which the hubby may have made an effort of looking aside while remaining every inch an envious husband. It is here that conjugal knots flopped, as Uchebe – it’s the name – wanted a disciplined wife in 'Shishi Baby'...!