The talented Ma Sauda: Queen of the screen and mic

In Tanzania’s creative circles she is known simply as Ma Sauda. She is slow to speak, always listening but with an inquisitive and open mind, allowing her to mingle with people of all ages and backgrounds.

Sauda Jasmin Simba, 60, is an actress, singer, author of children’s books, PR and marketing practitioner and a philanthropist. She is currently playing a lead role in the television drama Jua Kali which is showing on DStv’s Maisha Magic Bongo channel.

In the course of her work, Ma Sauda has met and mingled with the high and mighty such as the late South African saxophonist Hugh Masekela; former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, the late Tanzanian industrialist Reginald Mengi and Ugandan musician Jose Chameleon to mention a few.

Interview

To find out more about her life and accomplishments, she invited me to her house in Dar es Salaam, where we had a chat. Sitting outside on her verandah as she excused herself to brew a cup of lemongrass tea, and I could not help myself admiring the artworks on her walls; wooden masks, metal sculptures collection from around the world.

She brought a thick scrap book, a collection of news articles, pictures and other mementos of her life. As we sipped out tea, as I learn about the different facets of her life.

Early Years

Ironically Ma Sauda has a holds a BSc in Human Physiology and a Masters in Public Health from Trinity College, in Ireland. She recalls that while studying for her masters sometime in the early 1980s, she also told herself, “science isn’t a passion for me, I couldn’t see myself pursuing it.” Yet she was academically dedicated to it.

Thankfully, she had made friends with some art students who introduced her to a theatre group and later, through the same networks, she ended up as lead singer in a small jazz band called Cheza, and has local newspaper cuttings of decent reviews of her band’s performance. She acted in a play, a rendition of Three Women by Slyvia Plath that got reviewed by an Irish newspaper: Christy, Sauda and Patricia Berges would infuse feeling into their lines without emotional excess; it’s not a primary function of theatre to send one back to the written word. But it’s still a tribute to this production and it generates an interest in examining source material more closely

Ms Sauda spent much of her teenage years in Europe, as her father, the late Iddi Simba, who later was a Cabinet minister, was posted to the UK as the resident director for the African Development Bank.

She returned to Tanzania after a decade away and only after finishing college. Her mother by then had set up a company and “so I went into the family business doing sales and marketing. I remember going door to door and really getting to know Dar es Salaam after being away for so long.”

The family won a bid to be Macmillan Publisher’s agent in Tanzania and Ms Sauda was at the helm of this wing of the company, lobbying for and marketing Macmillan text books in the Tanzanian market.

It is from here that her interest in early childhood education took root. The family business then spawned Diamond Publishers which Ms Sauda headed. It went on to publish nine titles of children’s, five of these authored by Ms Sauda: Kuku Mweusi na Kenge, Mvuvi wa Samaki wa Ajabu (co-authored with Herman Mbwana) and the Saa Ngapi titles of which are still in print under Mkuki na Nyota Publishers (she gave Mkuki the publishing rights after Diamond Publishers wound up.).

During her time with Diamond Publishers, Ms Sauda took on the job of news anchor for Radio Tanzania’s international service. “So I started doing that part time, we got picked up in this old rickety thing but it was so much fun. The highlight of the job was the chai ya maziwa and mkate wa siagi (tea with milk served with bread and butter), served at the canteen, and was a real time for bonding.”

Ms Sauda got married in 1989 to the diplomat Chabaka Kilumanga, and had her daughter and only child, Maya, in 1990. She moved to live in Russia for five years where Mr Kilumanga was stationed. They are no longer together. She thinks her experience with Diamond Publishers helped her secure a job first as an assistant English teacher and later as a full time Kindergarten teacher at the Anglo American School in Moscow. This worked out well for her as her daughter went to the same school and helping her to acclimatise to the foreign environment.

Corporate life

When they moved back to Tanzania in 1997/98, she taught at the International School of Tanganyika in Dar es Salaam as a pre-school teacher and later worked as a News anchor for ITV.

The exposure through TV is how many of us got introduced to Ma Sauda, but she soon left for PR and marketing job at the Tanzania Breweries Ltd.

“One day Aggrey Mareale calls me for an interview for the position of public relations manager at TBL and that is how I start working in the corporate world." She also worked as brand manager for Redds, Konyagi Ice and later Kilimanjaro Lager. This job propelled her to another at Barrick Gold and later Africo Resources in DR Congo in the same capacity. On her return from DR Cong, she set up her own PR and marketing firm, Triniti Promotions, and has been director for over a decade.

Philanthropy

Her philanthropy work started when her job took her to the village of Mdokonyole in Morogoro, where pupils were sitting on logs in the open. “I fundraised to build a classroom and ended up building a full school building and had enough money to buy desks,” she recalled.

Almost four years later, Ms Sauda is still involved in charity projects close to her home in Dar es Salaam. She crowd sourced for a pre-school classroom for Ushindi Primary School in her neighbourhood when she used social media to pledge $100 to renovate the classroom. Her efforts paid off and “the children are happy, and every year we host them a party. I partner with my friend Veronique Iyakuze who has a music school. She has offered a scholarship for two children here to join her school.” She also arranged to have volunteers to assist at the pre-school.

A performer

From her humble acting days at university, Ms Sauda got her big break in 2000 with a cameo role in Egoli, then a popular day time soap opera from South Africa screened by DSTV. She was in Egoli while still at the Tanzania Breweries Ltd. It opened the floodgates of several roles in film productions in Tanzania. She has appeared in Girlfriend, The Big Shot directed by Imruh Bakari, Child Protective Unit, Binti (the first Tanzanian film to be shown on Netflix) as well as the series Ahadi on Azam TV and currently Jua Kali, the acclaimed Tanzanian drama, a Multichoice production that scooped six awards at the Tanzania Film Festival 2021.

She, not surprisingly, has two albums to her name, Simply Jazzmin (2006) and Sauti ya Sauda (2009). She has performed both in Tanzania and in Europe, once even curtain raised for Hugh Masekela during his Dar es Salaam tour in 2011 and performed at Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar.

In the middle of her engagements she also found time to author write and publish The Pond that lies in my Village (Mkuki Publishers), My Wonderful world of Senses (E&D Publishers). She is currently promoting her self-published latest children’s book titled Napenda Nini. “I wanted a book highlighting an African girl with her father being a part of the story. It’s for pre-school and so very simple. I partnered with Cloud Chatanda who did the illustration.” The book is available for order on her website, Trinity Promotions.

Ms Sauda is a child of the 80s, a time when educated women, especially in Africa were frowned upon when they showed ambition and strayed from the ‘’teacher-nurse-secretary’’ profession.

“They are negative influences and yes they’re times you doubt yourself but the steps you must take are yours. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

''I believe in people knowing who they are and being confident in what they do and listening to their inner voice.”

There is no better reminder for us to face and embrace our fears if we want to excel.

This article originally came from The East African