“It was just banned, somebody is singing that he's missing the former president because of the way the current president is doing things,” Mrema added. “One song was about speaking about missing Jakaya Kikwete,” said the opposition politician, referring to a track entitled, ‘I’m sorry JK’ by Nikki Mbishi.

“They are silencing every voice - we politicians, our voices have been silenced, human rights activists, they have been silenced, now it’s time for the musicians,” Mrema told RFI.

If you ask, 'what culture', nobody can respond to that,” said John Mrema, director of communications and foreign affairs, Chadema party. They're just saying that these songs are against our culture. “The reasons that we are given by the government, they are very shallow. Tanzania’s main opposition party has hit out at the ban, saying it amounts to “censorship” and is part of efforts by President John Magufuli to crackdown on freedom of expression. The statement from Tanzania’s communications regulator announcing the ban said that the 13 songs are contrary to the country’s broadcasting values, describing them as unethical. If you walk naked in Tanzania, or if you participate in incest or homosexuality then you should accept sanctions,” he said, referring to other acts that he said are considered to be against Tanzania’s cultural norms. “Once they are breached there are sanctions, which everybody knows about. “Some of the cultural norms we protect here,” Tanzania’s information minister said in a telephone interview. The list features artists such as Diamond Platnumz, whose music videos have racked up millions of views online, and Ney Wa Mitego, who previously fell foul of the authorities for a song that was considered insulting to the government. “So what we have done is simply to take measures, as the law demands, against lyrics containing offensive language, which are totally unacceptable.” “We have our cultural norms - our attitudes and behaviours that are considered normal, therefore acceptable to Tanzanians in general,” Harrison Mwakyembe, Tanzania’s information minister, told RFI.

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