by Jane Flanagan

A museum dedicated to the Queen frontman Freddie Mercury has opened at his childhood home on the island of Zanzibar to celebrate his life — albeit only part of it. Yellowing family snaps, stage costumes and the first piano he ever played have been assembled in a sloping building in Stone Town, the ancient centre of the spice trade. Merchants now hope that the museum will attract a new trade in rock music tourists.

Mercury’s roots on the Tanzanian island barely get a mention in the 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody, which drew millions of new fans to the flamboyant singer. The Freddie Mercury museum’s founders hope to bring greater recognition to the semi-autonomous island.

Yet commemorating Mercury, who was born Farrokh Bulsara, is fraught in Zanzibar. His lifestyle after his family left east Africa when he was 18 would have led to him being persecuted had they stayed there. The island of 1.3 million people is 99 per cent Muslim, and homosexuality is punishable by jail.

“Nobody denies he is a legend,” Andrea Boero, one of the museum founders, said. “But Zanzibar is a conservative Muslim country and Mercury’s later lifestyle doesn’t match with that. Local people want to come and see the exhibits. We have been very sensitive about these things.” Read more via the Times