5 things you may not know about Freddie Mercury and her childhood in Zanzibar – BBC News



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The premiere of the legendary British rock band Queen's new film, Bohemian Rhapsody, was once again dedicated to its most legendary member, Freddie Mercury.

His play on stage, his strange costumes, his memorable successes, his badual tastes and his 45-year-old AIDS death are just some of the things that almost everyone remembers about this rock star the eighties but much less is known about his childhood.

The film barely evokes the African past of Mercury although he was born in the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa, from parents originating in India.

Here There are five other details about the childhood of the Queen's singer in Zanzibar that you may not have known.

1. Farrokh Bulsara was born

This is the real name that Freddie Mercury received when he was born on September 5, 1946 in Stone Town, the old town of Zanzibar, the main population of the archipelago that was at the time a British protectorate. 19659003] His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Indians of Persian origin and believers of Zoroastrianism a religion also derived from ancient Persia.

  Photograph of the house where Mercury lived as a child.
The house where Freddie Mercury lived with his family in Zanzibar has become a tourist attraction.

Mercury's father, Bomi, came to Zanzibar for to work as an adviser to the Superior Court. of the British government, but marries his wife Jer in India and then takes him to the African island.

He was born his first son, Farrokh Bulsara, and six years later, his first son. at Karishma

2. He had an affluent childhood

The cousin of the late singer, Perviz Darunkhanawala, described in "Bohemian Rhapsody" – Mercury's biography written by Lesley-Ann Jones – that the family had always managed to live quite well thanks to A British official of the father of the artist

  The people around the old Mercury house of Stone Town
The young Farrokh Bulsara grew up in the narrow alleys of Stone Town, the old town from Zanzibar.

They lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking the sea in Stone Town, the historic part of Zanzibar City full of shops, bazaars, mosques and an authentic labyrinth of narrow streets.

several housekeepers including Sabine, the nanny responsible for taking care of children.

3. It was not there that he discovered music

In the early years of school, Mercury pbaded to the Zanzibar Missionary School, a center where they taught Anglican nuns, but which welcomed people of all religions and all religious cults.

] But when he was eight, his parents decided to send him to study in India

  The Queen Group (from left to right), John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May. Probably in 1973.
Freddie Mercury (second from left) with other members of the Queen group in the 70s.

Once in India, he went to the school of San Pedro, a school of the Panchgani Anglican Church, southeast of what was once Bombay, today Mumbai .

Despite being a church school in England, St. Peter's welcomes children of all religions. continues to practice Zoroastrianism during his years there.

But it is during the free time that he spends with his aunt and grandparents at the time in Bombay that he discovers and begins to feel his love for music , even to form his first group with a group of friends: The Hectics .

4. He left because of a revolution

Mercury returned to the archipelago in 1963, when he was 17 years old. This is the same year that Zanzibar became independent of Britain and Mercury completed its last years of study. Lesley-Ann Jones, in his book, writes in his book

Bonzo Fernández, a friend of the singer of the time, told Jones how they were in the habit of swimming in the sea after the 39, school, or take bike rides along the southern beaches.

"He was always dressed in an elegant fashion ," recalls Fernández.

  Map of Zanzibar on the African continent.
Zanzibar is today a semi-autonomous territory of Tanzania, on the east coast of Africa.

But the good times did not last long. In 1964, a revolution overthrew the leader of the Arab elite . Some 17,000 people died in the clashes.

The presidents of Zanzibar and Tanganyika, who were displaced on the mainland, eventually signed a treaty in which they accepted the constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania and established that the Zanzibar Archipelago would be . a semi-autonomous state .

However, the Bulsara family, along with many others, fled the islands.

5. Zanzibar proudly remembers it

The artist had barely talked about his childhood in Zanzibar, but that did not stop his years of life from creating a lucrative business for him. tourism industry.

Today, he visits the places frequented by Mercury during his childhood: his house, the place of family prayer and the courtyard where the father worked. There is also a restaurant called Mercury and a souvenir shop.

  Freddie Mercury at a youth concert.
The lifestyle of Freddie Mercury does not correspond to the beliefs of the Islamic society. Curator of Zanzibar, but the singer is his most international citizen.

But there is one aspect of Mercury that is not so popular among Tanzanians: its bibaduality .

Islam is the predominant religion in the country. marriages between archipelagos and homobaduals have been illegal since 2004.

In 2006, a great controversy provoked discomfort among certain Muslim groups of the country because of the rumor that homobadual tourists were planning to surrender on the island to celebrate with a party on the beach that would have been the sixtieth anniversary of Mercury.

Still, journalist Aboubakar Famau, of the Tanzanian BBC service, claims that, even though some aspects of Mercur's lifestyle and they are quite controversial in a Muslim society, yet feels proud of him .

"They are proud of him, they have the feeling of having someone from their island who has reached the top of the international level music," he said.


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