Freddie Mercury Museum

FREDDIE, THE ISLAND BOY

The world's first Freddie Mercury Museum in Stone Town celebrates Zanzibar's most famous son.

A dimly lit gallery in Stone Town is just the right place to seek shelter on a steamy day. Somewhat unexpectedly, an entire showbiz world opens up inside. A red velvet curtain evokes Bollywood flair. Behind the curtain, there are black-framed pictures and dozens of record covers. I find myself having to adjust to a world much quieter and dimmer than the busy Stone Town alleys outside. The world's first and only Freddie Mercury museum in the center of Zanzibar's old town is still a secret to many. Situated at Kenyatta Road and Gizenga Street corner, the gallery inhabits the apartment house where the Mercury family once lived; another home lies opposite the Beach House entrance. "People become very emotional in here, “says museum manager Anam Adnan as she accompanies me through the inviting ground floor exhibition.

The official opening date was on November 24, 2019, the 28th anniversary of Mercury's death. Briefly operating, it had to shut down during the pandemic and is now receiving visitors again.

The rock legend's early childhood and his artistic life are depicted in touching images and sounds. I pause in front of his original birth certificate identifying the future star only as Farrokh Bulsara, born on September 5, 1946, at Mnazi Moja hospital, where most island kids first see the light of day. He reported having been a shy and introverted boy. He spent most of his childhood in Zanzibar, attending the local Tumekuja Secondary school and later a boarding school in Panchgani, India. At the age of 15, he returned to Zanzibar for the last time. In the early 1960s, his family moved to the UK.

"The exhibition moves some visitors to tears," 28-year-old general manager Adnan says. "Many still don't know that the Queen frontman was born in Zanzibar." The small but well-organized show includes rare childhood and other photos, album covers, testimonials, and, as a touching centerpiece, a piano just like the one young Farrokh practiced on in Zanzibar. His legendary yellow performing jacket straddled over the piano suggests the man just left the instrument a moment ago.

The Bulsara family had immigrated to Zanzibar from India. They were Parsis, followers of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion. Freddie's father worked as a cashier at the High Court, his mom as an accountant. Mercury's older sister Kashmira, now 76, grew up with him in Zanzibar and still lives in London. "The family was very educated and traditional ". Adman stresses.

An African ayah (nanny) took baby Farrokh for walks in a big-wheeled pram, fashionable at the time. Soon, he loved bicycling around and started singing at the Zoroastrian Temple when the Parsi community was still about 300 members strong. Today, only a handful remain, and the temple is an overgrown ruin, "but we are planning to resurrect it and conduct tours to all of Mercury's childhood spots, "says Anam Adnan.

British media often labels Mercury as a kid from the colonies," but there is more to it. In many ways, he is a typical off-shoot of the melting pot the semi-autonomous island in the Indian Ocean had become over the centuries. One of his last direct relatives, a middle-aged lady, still lives in Zanzibar. She remembers:

"He was like an uncle to us." Why does mystery still surround Freddie Mercury, who shot to fame with the pop group Queen in the seventies? Their opera-like masterpiece "Bohemian Rhapsody" became the first music video ever made. "We will rock you" and "We are the champions" the anthems of a generation, but Freddie was never the darling of the avant-garde music media. "His music was popular but not trendy," summed up a commentator in the English press. Mercury faced his identity struggles on the way to fame as he came to terms with his homosexuality. He remained friends with "the love of his life," Mary Austin, till his death.

This personal side of Mercury and his brave fight against HIV years later remain largely untold in Zanzibar. "Celebrating Freddie Mercury in Zanzibar is complicated. Had he returned there later in life, he would have likely struggled to gain acceptance in a predominantly Muslim community where homosexuality is illegal", expresses a CNN feature about the singer.

The Mercury museum is the brainchild of Zanzibar's well-known media entrepreneur Javed Jafferji and his friend Andrea Boero. They formed a partnership with Queen Productions in the UK who loaned exclusive pictures to the museum. "We aim to create awareness of the rock star on his birth island, to celebrate his roots, music, and art," explains manager Ad- nan. Recently, Queen guitarist Brian May and his wife Anita gave them a thumbs up when visiting Zanzibar. Designed with loving care, the museum will surely help demystify Mercury's legacy, including his stage name's origin. Old documents in the museum disclose that "Project Mercury" was the code name for a Nasa space station in Zanzibar during the sixties, forced to close after the 1964 regime change. Freddie learned about it, liked it - and his new artistic identity was born.

By Andrea Tapper

Freddie Mercury Museum

Mercury House

Shangani, Zanzibar

TEL: +255 777304477 www.freddiemercurymuseum.com open 10 am – 6 pm, from $10