The Queen from Zanzibar ... a misleading title, I suppose!

Was thinking about Tanzania earlier.  Thoughts took me to the place where we had lunch--Hasty Tasty.  Halfway through the lunch, my lunch-mate spotted a photograph on the wall of a person who seemed to look not quite European nor Indian nor Middle Eastern, and we became curious.

So, I walked up to the counter and asked the person there.

"You don't recognize him?" was her reply. 

I had no idea, though the face in the photo looked familiar. 

"That is the Aga Khan" she said, and various pieces fit together right away.

See, before we sat down for lunch, when we were walking around, I saw a hospital named after the Aga Khan. 

Now, the curious conversationalist in me took over. It turned out that she (I think the "mum" in that place that travel books refer to) was born in Zanzibar--yes, that island/archipelago which merged with Tanganyika to form the country Tanzania.  Marriage brought her over to the mainland.  Most of her relatives, near and far, have immigrated to the UK or Canada, or the US.

We were on a schedule, and had to get going.  I had hoped to chat with again another time, but when I returned there about ten days later, she was not to be found--perhaps that was her day off.  I was looking forward to resuming the conversation because I wanted to ask her about Freddie Mercury, the lead guy for Queen.

Mercury was born in Zanzibar to Parsi parents.  His schooling was in India, but the entire family had to flee from Zanzibar when the Sultan was thrown out in the aftermath of the British exiting .... So, Mercury ended up in the UK.

Aha, you see how I ended up thinking that somebody ought to make a movie out of Freddie Mercury's life.  It has all the drama that you would ever need--from his childhood in Zanzibar and India, the political uncertainties in the background along with their minority status, then the UK, his HIV/AIDS (which he did not publicly acknowledge for the longest time).... the music scene/Queen, an astrophysicist lead-guitarist!  I tell you, this will be an Oscar-winning movie. 

Here is one of my favorite Queen songs: