MALAIKA (NAKUPENDA MALAIKA)
Created on 20/11/2008Latest update on 23/09/2024
Artist: Fadhili Williams & The Jambo Boys
Author: Lucas Tutu
Label: Columbia East African Music Company
Year: 1960
Mixture of Arabian and Bantu elements. Malaika means 'My Angel' in Swahili. In full: My Angel, I Love You. Written in east Kenya. Author Tutu studied music in Rabai (near Mombasa) where he sang in church. Fundi Konde was part of that same choir and he brought the song to Nairobi. Must have been written in the mid 1940s, when Fadhili William, who gets credits on most of the versions, was still a child.
Covers:
- 1963:
Fadhili William Mdawida & The Black Shadows [this version (for Equator International) went international]
- 1965:
Spinners [UK; idem]
- 1965:
Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba [idem; Miriam always mentioned the Tanzanian origin of this song]
- 1965:
Pete Seeger [on LP Strangers & Cousins]
- 1967:
Hep Stars [Swedish band with Benny Andersson]
- 1968:
Miriam Makeba [in Swahili]
- 1981:
Boney M [crediting Frank Farian, as always]
- 1990:
- 1991:
- 1992:
Khadja Nin & diversen [cd with four versions; benefit for Médecins sans frontières]
- 1993:
- 1999:
- 2000:
- 2006:
Ronny Mosuse [all as Malaika]
