1S
Introduction
on e f r i da y mor n i ng in August 2009, beautiful choral voices filled
the air of the Kamunyonge Seventh-day Adventist Church in Musoma,
Tanzania. Touched by the powerful force of this spontaneous live perfor-
mance and deeply impressed by the professionalism of the choir, I sat at
the table of honor provided for me and listened to the song. The female
members of the choir set in singing, in Tanzania’s national language, Swa-
hili: “Unfortunately, it was false and stupid, nothing can have a begin-
ning without an ending.” The men replied: “Men built a huge ship called
Titanic. They trusted and believed that it would never sink.” Together we
sailed along on this journey, moving ever closer to the disastrous demise
of the ship, and they ended their hymn by reminding me and the other
listeners that “Now the world is just like the Titanic—about to sink. And
even if it is difficult to believe that the world is coming to its end—that is
the truth. The world will sink and men will perish.” This was not my first
encounter with this song. Three years earlier, I had bought a tape record-
ing of it in a music store in Dar es Salaam, also in Tanzania. Attracted by
the cassette’s cover, with an image of the ship taken from James Cameron’s
Titanic (1997), I was excited to add another piece of this Holly wood film
to my growing collection of African appropriations. By that time I had
already come across a Nigerian video remake, a Tanzanian comic book,
and a Congolese music video clip. Later on I was to discover still more
references to it, from names of video stores and barbershops to those of
buses and boats. W hat is so fascinating about this particular material is