Julius Nyerere’s socialist vision for Tanzania during his term as president from 1963-1984 meant that record labels were few and far between. Kwetu, Sindimba, TFC and Uhuru Stars are all products of one firm, the Tanzania Film Company, which specialised in producing documentaries for government bodies and had its own recording studio. Alex Perullo, in his book Live from Dar Es Salaam: Popular Music and Tanzania’s Music Economy (Indiana University Press, 2011), states that Uhuru Stars was the first TFC label, followed shortly afterwards by Sindimba. AIT pressed and distributed the Kenyan version of the label with the same catalogue numbers.

Uhuru Stars