Will Ross reports from Zanzibar and Mombasa on how traditional Taarab music is responding to the challenge of new influences. In the 1930's the great Taarab singer, Siti Bint Saad, was a prized ...

Taarab music has come of age. Gone are the days when lovers of the soulful melodies merely sat back and listened as their favourite songs were played. Today, Taarab fans are packing entertainment ...

A famous Zanzibari singer and composer, Siti binti Saad established taarab as a performing art and as a mouthpiece for women in East Africa. In the process, she became a pioneer in many ways. Siti ...

It was a night to behold. Women of all shapes and shades strutted into the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in style for Radio Maisha’s taarab night. Upcountry taarab lovers were left ...

Not so long ago, Christopher John's days were spent herding his family's goats and cows in a rural part of Zanzibar, the tropical island off the coast of Tanzania. But he always loved music and used ...

Dar es Salaam — The 2018 edition of the Sauti Za Busara is almost seven months away and already the applications are flooding with more than 400 groups that have already submitted applications to ...

A product of centuries of interaction across the Indian Ocean, Zanzibari wedding music is essentially Arab light-classical music – all surging strings and jingling dulcimers – delivered with African ...

Zanzibar music lovers everywhere are mourning the loss of legendary musician Makame Faki Makame, who died on January 18, 2020, at the age of 77, at Global hospital in Stone Town, Zanzibar, following a ...