Faza Nelly RIP
THE SUDDEN DEATH OF FAZA NELLY
ARUSHA, 4 APRIL 2006 – The short update below was sent out to Tanzanian media on the 31st of March. With this text we tried to sum up some of the facts surrounding the tragic and sudden death of Faza Nelly, one of Africa’s hip hop heroes and an icon in his local scene of Arusha, northern Tanzania.
On monday 27 March, emcee Faza Nelly (Nelson Chrizostom Rutta) from Arusha, Northern Tanzania was stabbed 9 times with a knife by his neighbour, Moses Yohana Kilevo. Two days later he died from the results of the stabbing as the knife had severely damaged his lungs.
Faza Nelly was a member of X Plastaz, a rap group of six from Arusha whose work is known worldwide through their concert tours to places such as Brazil, Uk and Holland, an album released worldwide and tracks which appeared on compilations such as the Rough guide to African Rap. The group became popular through their own brand of East African hip hop, which is a merger of hardcore beats, Swahili rhymes and traditional acappella Maasai music sung by a Maasai warrior who spends most of his time in a traditional environment on the Maasai steppe.
The Gabao hip hop festival in 2006 was dedicated to the memory of Faza Nelly
THE MURDER
Nelly was murdered by Moses Yohana Kilevo, a neighbour who had been terrorizing his neighbourhood for some time with unappropriate behaviour such as writing ‘I am a killer’ on the walls of his shared compound, which was also home to neighbours’ kids. This behaviour had caused the neighbours to sign a petition to evict him, but to no avail. When Musa, one of Nelly’s friends who lived in the same house, tried to talk to Moses, he was arrested by police for false robbery charges – it was Moses who had sent this complaint.
Nelly tried to get Musa out of jail and talked to the police who asked him to return with neighbours to testify, then he went home to try to talk to Moses. Moses however got angry and wanted to fight Nelly, who then decided to evade problems and go back to his own room. Seconds later, Moses came out of his room with a big rambo knife and stabbed Nelly 9 times in several places including his nose, armpits and lungs.
There was never a fight, and Nelly according to his family and environment was a totally peaceful person who would never harm anyone, he showed compassion to the ‘have-nots’ of society as can be heard in his lyrics such as ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’. Also in this case he could not even defend himself against the attack from the back.
Nelly spent 2 days in hospital where he was put to a breathing machine. He had surgery two times, but after the second time his condition suddenly dropped and he died in the presence of doctors and his friend Musa.
Wanted: Moses Kilevo (picture)
THE KILLER – REWARD OF 500.000 TSH
The killer, Moses Yohana Kilevo, was a regular person with a family (wife and 2 kids), other than what was mentioned in the Tanzanian press before, he was not a ‘kichaa’ (insane). However he was known to be a rude and unpleasant person to his neighbourhood. Moses fled away after stabbing Nelly and has not been seen again. Arusha police are investigating and chances are that he may have fled to Nairobi where he has relatives. A reward for bringing the killer out has been put up by the family to the value of 500.000 Tanzanian shillings. See photo.
THE FUNERAL
Because the family wanted to wait until Nelly’s brother Godson (Gsan, also a member of X Plastaz) returned from Chicago along with his wife and X Plastaz manager Thomas Gesthuizen (J4), the ‘matanga’ (mourning ceremony) took four days, and Nelly was buried on the fifth day.
The mourning attracted hundreds of youth and elders from Arusha and beyond, including Kamaa from Kalamashaka and Black, another Kenyan emcee. The funeral itself took place in Njiro (Arusha) and attracted over 1000 attendants: 40 dala-dala’s (matatus) had to be used to carry everyone who didn’t have their own transport.
MUSIC VIDEO: NINI DHAMBI KWA MWENYE DHIKI
In 2002, X Plastaz recorded the track ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’ to a beat supplied by dj Threesixty in Amsterdam.
The video was shot in September 2004 on the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai (the Mountain of God to the Maasai people) and in the slums of Arusha. The editing had just been completed earlier this month, 2 days before Nelly was stabbed. In the same week he died, the volcano had its first major eruption in years…
This video is among the last works that Faza Nelly completed on this earth, and it is being distributed in his memory. On many levels, the story depicted in this video seems symbolic for the passing of Nelly.
The track ‘Nini dhambi kwa mwenye dhiki’ is about the poor and have-nots of society. Faza Nelly wrote the song from his own experiences and from talking to other people in the streets. This is one of X Plastaz songs that shows the exceptional talent Nelly had for painting a vivid picture with his lyrics.
The video shows Nelly in three settings: Unga Limited, a poor and dangerous slum in Arusha; Eluwai, the Maasai village of X Plastaz member Yamat; and the top of the Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. The latter (also the setting of the Tomb Raider 2 movie) is located in a remote and hard to reach part of Tanzania, and X Plastaz (Gsan, Yamat, Nelly and Juma4 accompanied by driver Bida and Captain) had to get a Landrover, drive out there and climb at night (60% steep rock path) to reach the summit at sunrise, to film between the smoking hornitos which spit lava regularly. Although the volcano was slumbering when the video was recorded, it spit out a large and dangerous lava flow in the same week Nelly’s died, and thousands of people in the area had to be evacuated.