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Popular Musical Performance Among the Swahili of Mombasa, Kenya

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Cultural Analysis 2001, 2: 1-37©2001 by The University of California.All rights reserved

A Socio-Historical andContextual Analysis ofPopular Musical Perfor-

mance Among the Swahiliof Mombasa, Kenya

Mwenda NtarangwiSt. Lawrence University

Nairobi, Kenya

AbstractThis paper discusses a genre of Swahilipopular music—taarab—by focusing onits historical development, context of per-formance, and relation to gender and reli-gion. Using case studies and interviewswith musicians and audience members attaarab performances, I analyze the struc-ture and organization of taarab music per-formance. These performances reveal thatthe gender divide assumed by many schol-ars is in fact far from characteristic ofSwahili musical performance. By examin-ing the context and meanings of produc-ing and consuming taarab, I demonstratethat, rather than occupying two distinctworlds of men and women, Swahili musi-cal practices engender both competitive andcomplementary realities, thereby fosteringa complexity that would be easily missedif the meanings of gendered interaction andbehavior were to be taken at face value.Consequently, I highlight how the analy-sis of popular musical expression can con-tribute to an understanding of socio-cul-tural practices, reproduction and changeof cultural norms, and local units of self-assessment among the Swahili in particu-lar and other communities in general.

Introduction

Taarab is the Swahili equivalent ofthe Arabic word tarab, which im-plies the concept(s) of entertain-

ment, enchantment, emotion-filledmovement, and delight (Anthony1983; Askew 1992; Topp 1992). As usedamong the Swahili, taarab denotes theperformance and singing of mashairi(poems) with instrumental accompani-ment (Campbell 1983; Knappert 1979)and also carries the connotations of en-tertainment and expression of emo-tions. The Swahili are an African peopleof mixed descent living along the EastAfrican coast as well as in the interior.They are mainly Muslim and lead anurban lifestyle characterized by a mer-cantile economy. With a language thathas become world-known, the Swahilihave an elaborate cultural practice thatdraws from Arab, African, Indian, andEuropean cultures. Taarab music is in-deed a reflection of this complexitywith its characteristics reflecting influ-ences from Arabia, Africa, India, Eu-rope, and the Americas. However,when one speaks of Swahili music,there is no doubt that taarab is a majorpart of that music.

Although taarab is often performedat Swahili weddings, the performanceitself has very little to do with the brideand groom at the specific wedding.Rather, taarab performance is a socialspace in which local values, concerns,and relations are mobilized, discussed,evaluated, and reconfigured. Thus,apart from a song or two advising thegroom and bride on how to live har-moniously in marriage, most taarab

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songs performed at a wedding willtouch on different topics of life relevantto social contexts outside of the wed-ding. Some songs will touch on the con-cerns of humans in general, while othersongs will touch on specific social is-sues of the local community. For in-stance, in one performance, one canhear a song about the human quest forcontrol over the earth, a song about thebeauty of Swahili women, a song abouta changed political economy, or a songabout the pain of losing a loved one.Whatever theme each taarab song rep-resents, however, no performance isidentical to another. At each perfor-mance, a song’s meaning expands orchanges depending on the images itexpresses or the inferences the audi-ence members may make from it.Given the use of metaphor and othersymbolic tropes in song texts, a singletaarab song may elicit numerous mean-ings and interpretations.

Taarab is unique among Swahilimusical genres in that it is the onlygenre in which men and women nowperform music together in public. Inthe words of Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany,1

“these changes [of men and womenperforming together] come due to con-texts. You will find women teaming upwith men to sing but this is not Swahiliculture or tradition. Indeed, it is againstthe teachings of Islam. These perform-ers know it but still ignore it.”2 SitaraBute, one of the prominent womentaarab musicians in Mombasa, sharedthe same sentiments raised byNabhany about Islam and genderedpractices but saw the practice as partof a process of development. Thus inanswer to the same question that I had

posed to Nabhany on women and menperforming together, she stated, “Whenwe look at women’s participation insinging, we find that if we strictly fol-low customs or religious practice, awoman is not allowed to sing. But nowdue to certain advancements orchanges in social relations, we can nowsing. In the past men did not mix withwomen publicly as they do nowadays.These days we see that just as the manhas a job in the office so does thewoman. So you see there are changesand I expect that they will continue inthe days to come.”3

Many Swahili people in the commu-nity have noted the social changes thatSitara mentions. In June 1997, I talkedto one of the caretakers at the MuslimWomen’s Institute at the Islamic Cen-ter in Mombasa about the use of theirlarge hall for social events. She men-tioned that the hall is often hired outto individual families who use it forwedding receptions instead of holdingthem in the makeshift sheds made ofcanvas that are quite common inMombasa. One of the reasons that shegave for many families choosing thehall (besides the fact that they couldafford it) was that it enabled them tomonitor who would come into thefunction. When asked if there weretaarab performances that occurred inthe hall, Sitara said that they do not al-low taarab bands to come into the hallbecause they include both men andwomen performing together, whichwas contrary to what the center waspromoting. Instead, the Institute mayinvite a female taarab musician whowill lip-synch to her recorded musicplayed on a cassette player. This is one


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way of trying to deal with the nowcommon practice at Swahili perfor-mances in which men and women par-ticipate.

For Zuhura Swaleh, another promi-nent taarab musician based inMombasa, these social changes are di-rectly linked to taarab music, since shefeels that “taarab lyrics give advice andencouragement to do things. They en-courage [women] to believe that theycan do that which another person cando.”4 To see this music genre in theseterms is to associate expressive culturewith the social change that competeswith the established tradition of expect-ing gender separation at Swahili wed-dings. Throughout my fieldwork Igathered information from men andwomen who, although agreeing thattaarab performance was going againstthe expected gender practice, saw it asindicative of the changes the societywas undergoing. To many, thesechanges were unstoppable, althoughsome felt that there was a need forthings to go back to the “good olddays.” I thus saw a dichotomy betweenculture as stated and culture as prac-ticed. In this paper I try to foregroundthe importance of taarab not only as aforum wherein social practices arecrafted, represented, and challengedbut also as a way of interrogating thesocial processes of using music as anarena to understand a community’scultural and historical realities.

The Structure and Organization ofTaarab

Performance of poetry among the

Swahili has a long history dating as farback as the sixteenth century whenwritten historical records for Swahililiterary practices first appear (Allen1981). That poetry is an important com-ponent of Swahili cultural identity andpractices has been well documented(e.g., Allen 1981; Anthony 1983; Har-ries 1962; Knappert 1972, 1977;Mulokozi 1982; Mazrui and Shariff1994; Shariff 1983). Indeed, much ofSwahili’s expressive culture is centeredon this poetry. The Swahili divide theirpoetry into three categories- the shairi(a poem that has four lines in eachverse), the utenzi (a long poem of threeor four lines in each verse and mainlycomposed as an epic) and the wimbo (athree-versed poem composed to besung).

However, these categories are notentirely distinct, as there are manyoverlaps between categories; indeed, ifwe heed the thoughts of earlier Swahilischolars, then we agree that Swahilipoetry is composed to be sung (Abedi1965; Harries 1962), and hence place allSwahili poetry under the wimbo genre.It is only after we include notions ofthe content of poems, where they areperformed, and their length, that weare able to group them into various cat-egories. Nevertheless, taarab techni-cally falls under the third category ofwimbo, with three lines in each verseand a fourth one that is usually the re-frain (locally referred to as kiitikio,kipokeo, or kibwagizo). The compositionof taarab texts adheres to the traditionof rhyme and meter that is followed inother forms of Swahili poetry. Here isan example of a taarab song that fol-

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lows rhyme and meter that is presentin much of Swahili poetry. The firstverse of the song, “Singetema” byZuhura Swaleh is as follows:

Takusema takusema tasemasitonyamaza

Na lawama na lawama wajamnganilemeza

Singetema singetema yamenishindakumiza

The first line of this verse can be di-vided into 16 syllables of twohemistiches of 8 syllables each:1. Ta ku se ma ta ku se ma 2. ta se ma si tonya ma zaAlso note that all the end syllables ineach hemistich have a rhyming sound(ma in the first and za in the last).

When sung, taarab may fit into thelarger realm of African music throughits performance and musical style de-spite the aforementioned influencesfrom other cultures. The singing ofmany taarab songs does, however, be-tray its Arabic influence. Thus the ma-jority of taarab singers have whatLomax calls “the bardic style of the ori-ent” (1961, 443). Their voices oscillatebetween the spectrum of rubato,melisma, and tremulo with a clear em-phasis on nasal singing, which is alsopresent in Indian songs.

Overall, the four major qualitiescited in definitions of African music canbe equally useful in analyzing taarab.These are: a) call and response, b) per-cussiveness, c) syllabic singing, and d)short musical units that are repeated insmall variations (Chernoff 1979; DjeDjeand Carter 1989; Merriam 1982). For

purposes of consistency let us use thesame song by Zuhura Swaleh to exem-plify the performed structures oftaarab. The song “Singetema” repre-sents the style of taarab that incorpo-rates local rhythmic patterns often usedin chakacha and msondo perfor-mances:5

Takusema takusema tasemasitonyamazaI will talk about you I can’t keepquietNa lawama na lawama wajamnganilemezaEven if people castigate meSingetema singetema ya-menishindakumizaI would not have talked, I can’t takeit any more

Refrain:Mtu lake ni kusema nami tasemasitonyamazaA person ought to speak up and thusI won’t keep quietSingetema singetema kweliyamenishinda kumizaI wouldn’t have spoken, I can’t takeit any more

Nakusema nakusema nasema japositakiI’ll talk about you though I don’twant toPenye wema penye wema wajuahapafitikiGood deeds can’t be concealedSingetema singetema kumizahayamizikiI wouldn’t have talked, I can’t takeit anymore


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La kutengwa la kutengwa hutengwalisofwatikaBad things have to be shunnedLingapangwa wenye kupanga huchokaEven if one tried to mend it theywould be tiredNimeshindwa nimeshindwa kumizayasomizikaI am unable to take it any more

Nimekoma nimekoma umechoka moyowanguI have had it, my heart is tiredNakusema nakusema ingawa sio dawayanguI will talk about you though it’s notmy styleNayasema nayasema heri apendayoMunguI talk in God’s will

When we look at the four key pointsfor analyzing African music mentionedabove, we find that this song“Singetema” fits and illustrates them

very well. First, the vocal part of thesong includes a soloist and a choruswho both exemplify the call and re-sponse quality with the soloist beingthe lead voice as the chorus respondsto his/her text. Second, the instrumen-tal accompaniment includes theharmonium, tabla, bongos, an electricguitar, a chapuo drum, and a tambou-rine, thus forming the major percussiveensemble. Third, when this poem issung, the singer pronounces the syl-lables as singular short sounds that can-not be extended as one would in En-glish words. Thus the singer will singthe first word in the first verse as fol-lows: si nge te ma as opposed tosiiingeeeehteeehmaaah, which would bepossible in English words. Poetically,the song is divided into four stanzas ofthree lines each and a chorus that isrepeated after every stanza. Andfourth, the instrumentalists play a ba-sic tune that they repeat over everystanza but with slight variations. Allthese parts for the song “Singetema”can be illustrated as follows:

Structure of “Singetema” by Zuhura Swaleh

Note: Numbers denote time in seconds; a denotes vocal part sung by soloist and b thechoral part; vs. denotes a verse in the poem; Ref. denotes the responsorial refrain; A is themelodic phrase; and A’ is the second melodic phrase.

Instrume-ntation

34 25 25 25

Vocal 33/a 12/b 34/a 12/b 34/a 12/b 34/a 20/b

Texts vs.1 Ref. vs.2 Ref. vs.3 Ref. vs.4 Ref.

Melodicphrase

A A' A A A' A A A' A A A' A

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Where A is the melody played by theharmonium which in this song marksthe beginning of the song and the be-ginning of each subsequent stanza, adenotes the vocal part that constitutesthe singing of a single stanza by thesoloist, and b the responsorial chorussung after the instrumentation and so-loist sections. Throughout the song,there is a drum pattern with apolyrhythmic texture of triples andduples. The first drum pattern, per-formed on a tabla, plays the triple,while the second, performed on adumbak, plays the duple. A tambourinecompletes the rhythm with a triple pat-tern that also acts as the pulse marker. In the entire song, the harmoniumnot only plays the accompanyingmelody along with the soloist, but alsothe response that comes after the solo-ist, just before the chorus joins in therepeated response. This responsorialchorus is sung in unison with the solo-ist and the other members of the groupand is repeated after every stanza. Eachstanza in the song carries a meaning-ful idea. This is divided into lines thatare broken into two hemistiches ofeight syllables whose divisions are re-peated end sounds (e.g., in the first linema and za are the end syllables of thetwo hemistiches respectively and arerepeated in the whole stanza and thechoral part). The choral part is distinctin the number of syllables it carries.Certain speculative conclusions can bemade to account for this variation inlength between the chorus and theother lines in the stanza. First, the cho-rus cannot be strictly considered partof the technical composition of thewhole poem. The poem falls under the

wimbo genre that, as a rule, comprisesthree lines in a stanza. Therefore, thechorus lines need not conform strictlyto the rules governing the other lines.Secondly, since the chorus marks theend of one sung part before the accom-panying harmonium plays the basictheme, it is lengthened to prepare forchange into the next stanza.

The melodic phrase, which is re-peated in the different parts of the song,expresses the key idea of the line andfollows a similar pattern of subsequentlines and stanzas. Musically speaking,the first part of the song that is per-formed by the harmonium A can berepresented as follows:

A1 2 1 2 3 3 3 4

1, 2, 3, and 4 represent distinct melodicsections in this musical part. 4 marks adescent in the melody that ushers in thenext part of the song, which is the sec-tion sung by the soloist. In this part themelody, which is represented by A’,follows a pattern in which theharmonium plays along with thesoloist’s sung part, repeating the samemelody (as that of the soloist) after eachline in each verse, except in the last cae-sura of the second line in which themelody of the first line is repeated.Marking each caesura off with a letter,I represent this second melodic phrase(A’) as follows:

Takusema takusema [1]tasema sitonyamaza [1]

-


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Na lawama na lawama [2]waja mnganilemeza [1]

Singetema singetema [1]yamenishinda kumiza [1]

Since the middle line has a low pitchcompared to the other two, the as-sumption here is that the adoption of 1instead of 2 in the repeated part of thesecond line is intended to create asmooth blend between this second lineand the subsequent third, hence ensur-ing a harmonious melody throughoutthe song. Note that the letters of illus-tration correspond with those issued inillustrating the first melodic phraseperformed by the harmonium. Boththese melodies are similar to each other.

One general characteristic of taarabsongs is that their melodic structure isdictated by the poetic construction ofthe text as well as by the style of taarabthat the musician wishes to follow. Inthe example above, the chorus or re-frain is responsorial and is performedin unison by the soloist, other back-upsingers, and the harmonium, and it isrepeated after each stanza. The songbegins with a drum pattern followedby the harmonium that plays the cho-ral melody which is then followed bythe soloist. Some structural differencesmay be noted between different bands.Taarab bands that make claims to anArab musical identity will emphasizestringed instruments such as the oudand the violin, over percussive instru-ments such as drums and tambourines.Bands that tend more towards localAfrican musical styles emphasize per-

cussive instruments over string instru-ments.

Despite these specific differences,most, if not all of the taarab songs thatI have listened to include an electrickeyboard or harmonium, a set ofdrums, and a tambourine as the basicinstrumental accompaniment. The key-board plays a major role in not onlyproviding the song’s melody but alsoin acting as an accompanying “voice”by repeating the soloist’s sung part orthe refrain. Further, the keyboard, play-ing this role of another “voice,” oftenindicates the end of one song and theintroduction of another, especially atlive performances where a single songmay incorporate parts of more thanthree songs. One notable characteristicof chakacha music is the repetition ofshort phrases which are sung in a calland response pattern where the leadersings a single line to which the audi-ence responds with another line or two.Whenever a taarab band chooses to in-corporate chakacha melodies in its per-formance repertoire, the keyboard actsas the leader by “singing” the first lineof a well-known song to which the au-dience members respond with the ap-propriate lines. Indeed, according toSwahili oral history on the develop-ment of taarab music in Kenya, foreigninstruments were adopted into the lo-cal music ensembles due to these in-struments’ ability to “sing” with themusicians.6

Taarab Music in Kenya

In Kenya, the popularity of taarab is

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widespread both in urban centers,where the sale of audiotapes thrives(Campbell 1974, 38) and in rural areas,where the music is performed at wed-dings and other social functions. Fur-thermore, there are weekly programsdevoted to taarab music on Kenyanradio and television. Weddings, how-ever, remain the most prominent arenafor the performance of taarab in Kenya.

For a long time now, taarab hasseemingly remained a musical styleassociated with Swahili people and hasoften shown little following amongcommunities other than the Swahili.7

In 1993, Malika Mohammed’s taarabperformance for three consecutive ses-sions in fully packed auditoriums toNairobi residents suggested that thisseeming lack of a following in otherKenyan communities (outside of theSwahili area) may be attributed to thepoor distribution and marketing of themusic rather than its intrinsic value andpopular appeal. Mombasa Swahilitaarab groups mostly record and dis-tribute their music through MbwanaRadio Service in Old Town, Mombasa.This distribution network limits theirmarket to Mombasa residents and oth-ers who know about the Mbwana Ra-dio Service. The limited distributionnetwork is evident in Kenya todaygiven the fact that there are no taarabrecords in the Kenya BroadcastingCorporation’s music library in Nairobithat are dated beyond the mid-1980s,when major record labels stopped cut-ting Swahili songs on vinyl records (ex-cept for Malika, who ventured outsideof Mbwana Radio Service and recordedwith a popular music band called

Them Mushrooms in Nairobi in 1993).The recording of music on audiotapesrather than vinyl records is importantbecause Kenyan radio stations, likemany other radio stations in East Af-rica, only play music recorded on vi-nyl records or compact discs, not onaudiotapes. Therefore, music that isrecorded on audiotapes is never avail-able to its listeners via radio, leadingto a decline in the playing of taarabmusic (especially new releases) on ra-dio.

Besides the marketing problem thatmakes it unavailable to larger audi-ences, much of taarab’s text is com-posed in Kiswahili that draws fromarchaic vocabulary and often employsmetaphors to disguise and hide mean-ings (Askew 1997, 7). For one to clearlyunderstand the meanings of these texts,one needs to be well acquainted notonly with the language but also withthe basic modalities for decipheringobscure underlying meanings. Some ofmy friends and colleagues in Kenyawere curious to know how I was ableto understand the texts in taarab songs,which they often found inaccessible.However, not all taarab songs elicitsuch complexity in meaning and thussome songs have become national hitsin Kenya given their easily understand-able message and good marketingstrategies.

Just as taarab music seems to havebeen neglected by music promoters inKenya as part of the national repertoireof local music, it is only recently thatthis music has caught the interest ofresearchers. When I started working onpopular music in my graduate work at


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Kenyatta University in Nairobi in thelate 1980s I had very little to fall backon in terms of literature on popularmusic. Indeed, I had to try and fit popu-lar music research into a literary courseof study, something that had not beendone before in the department ofKiswahili and African Languages inwhich I was enrolled. Furthermore, re-search carried out in the music depart-ments in the public universities inKenya was mostly centered on ‘tradi-tional’ music.8 As we shall see in thenext section, this neglect of popularmusic was a reflection of the develop-ment of music research in much ofWestern scholarship, which in turn in-fluenced scholars in Kenya, who hadreceived that same Western training.

Taarab within a Context of SwahiliMusic Ethnography

In the past decade, ethnomusico-logi-cal research among the Swahili of theeast African coast has progressed froman analysis of musical practice as a dis-tinct social phenomenon (Campbell1983) and as a historical performance(Franken 1986) to a process of localiza-tion through women’s participation(Topp 1992), as a language of commu-nication (King’ei 1992), as political his-tory (Fair 1996, 1997), and as a producerof national culture (Askew 1997). Thisprogress has often reflected advancesin ethnomusicology, anthropology, andother disciplines, which increasinglyutilize performance as an importantanalytical device. The absence of ananalysis of taarab music in the worksof both Campbell and Franken reflects

the primary concerns ofethnomusicology and anthropology ofmusic in the late 1970s and early 1980swhen both these authors were ingraduate school. At that time, muchethnomusicological research wasgeared towards “traditional” and“folk” music rather than popular mu-sic wherein taarab fits.

Yet Swahili musical practices, likeSwahili cultural identity, are a reflec-tion of the complexity that surroundstheir social and cultural activities andthe meanings they carry. Looking for“traditional” music genres leads to twochallenges. The first lies in the attemptto retrieve “traditional” music amonga community whose multiculturalidentity would not elicit a musical tra-dition devoid of influence from othercultures.9 In such a situation one wouldhave to depend on informants’memory or would have to study per-formances that do not reflect that tra-ditional nature of music in its strictsense. Secondly, an attempt to catego-rize musical practice into independententities is an exercise that is futile in amulticultural society such as theSwahili. Embodying African, Arabic,Indian, and Western styles of singingand composition, Swahili musicalstyles today cannot fit into boundedcategories of definition. Rather, theyreflect the contextuality, fluidity, andtransformations that have become thedefining factor of Swahili cultural ac-tivities and processes.

I discuss taarab’s musical perfor-mance here bearing in mind that it hasborrowed heavily from other localmusical genres, as has been well dis-

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cussed by other scholars (e.g.,Campbell 1976, 1983; and Franken1986). In its performance, taarab incor-porates styles associated with othermusical genres of the Swahili such asvugo, msondo, and chakacha. Vugo isa musical genre that is centered aroundthe procession that moves from agroom’s home to the bride’s to presentthe mahari (dowry). The musical per-formance entails the hitting of buffalohorns (locally known as vugo, hencethe title of the genre) with sticks intriple rhythms that compliment theduples played by the accompanyingdrummers. Short lines of folk songsmixed with excerpts from taarab songsare repeatedly sung in these proces-sions (Franken 1986, 149).

Like vugo, msondo derives its namefrom a local drum that is used in thisgenre. Mainly in Mombasa and Pembaboth men and women perform it aspart of wedding celebrations. Partici-pants will form a semi-circle facing thedrummers and leave space betweenthem for dancers. Short musical linesare sung repeatedly as the women inthe audience often dance the popularhip gyration dance associated bothwith this genre and with chakacha. Thedrummers perform triple rhythms thathave a pattern of twelve pulses.Chakacha is second to taarab in popu-larity within the realm of Swahili mu-sic. It is performed during the all-nightsession that marks the climax of aSwahili wedding. Many Swahili fami-lies nowadays invite taarab bands toperform at these all-night sessions in-stead of having chakacha. In chakacha,the msondo drum is one of the key in-

struments that is used and is accom-panied by other instruments such asthe cone-shaped vumi drum, a two-sided drum that resembles an hour-glass called chapuo, a trumpet, andbrass plates. Interlocking rhythms ofduples and triples constitute the per-formance of chakacha. Fast beatrhymes with the intense hip gyrationdance movements are the notable char-acteristics of this performance. Thesegenres are rarely performed in isola-tion, as much of their rhythms are in-corporated in taarab. During my fieldresearch in Mombasa, many of themusicians with whom I spoke agreedthat taarab combined different rhyth-mic and melodic structures from theseSwahili musical genres as well as fromother musical traditions from othercontinents such as Latin American, In-dian, and Arabic styles.

Taarab Music in Historical Perspec-tive

Taraab developed in East Africa out ofthe local musical styles of people liv-ing along the Swahili Coast as well asthe musical styles of other people fromcultures in Asia, Europe, and America,with whom the Swahili interacted.Even in cases where very little culturalinfluence was visible between theSwahili and members of these othercultures, their musical styles foundtheir way into taarab. Thus, despite theabsence of close cultural contact be-tween Indian populations and theSwahili, for instance, major Indian cul-tural influences are evident in taaraband in other forms of Swahili popular


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culture. Indian films, which form astrong basis for the tunes in sometaarab songs, are a major attraction inMombasa. Writing about this phenom-enon, Janet Topp rightfully says, “sometaarab musicians copy the melodiesand rhythms of Indian ghazal-like filmsongs. This Indian-style taarab is mostprevalent in Mombasa, where the twomain exponents are Juma Bhalo andMaulidi Juma” (1992, 288).

The disadvantage of such a practice,as some Swahili informants explained,is that the popularity of the songs onlylasts as long as the movie does. Indeed,Maulidi Juma was quick to tell me thathe was working towards reducing thenumber of Indian tunes he included inhis compositions, because he “neededto maintain [his] own style.”10 Anothercommon practice I noted during myfield research in Mombasa, is that someof the taarab musicians in Mombasahave taken to copying musical tunesand styles performed by prominenttaarab groups in Tanzania. Some ofthese Mombasa musicians includeSitara Bute and her Diamond StarGroup, Rukia Mohammed, andMohammed Yusuf Tenge. Taarabstyles associated with Tanzaniangroups usually feature guitar rhythmsand dance tunes that are commonamong Tanzanian dance bands (Askew1997) rather than the usual organ orkeyboard tunes associated with taarabin Mombasa and Zanzibar (Ntarangwi1995, 1998).

Many scholars who have written onthe history of taarab have said that itwas first introduced to Zanzibar in 1870by Sultan Barghash, who had invited a

troupe of Egyptian musicians to playat his court (Graham 1992; Saleh 1980;Topp 1992). At the time, Zanzibar wasthe center of a significant commercialempire, controlled by Omani Arab Sul-tans, which linked India, the PersianGulf, Arabia, and East Africa with Eu-ropean and U.S. traders.

The story states that Barghash wasso impressed with the Egyptian musi-cians that he decided to sendMohammed bin Ibrahim, a musicianfrom Zanzibar, to Cairo to learn to playthe ganuni (zither), one of the keytaarab instruments. After accomplish-ing his mission, Mohammed returnedto Barghash’s palace, where he becameBarghash’s personal poet. Mohammedalso taught a few of his friends how toplay the ganuni, a skill that they laterput to work when they teamed up tostart the first taarab group, NadiIkhwani Safaa, which was formed in1905 in Zanzibar (Topp 1992). Possibly,some of the members of the group thatperformed in the Sultan’s palaceplayed with Nadi Ikhwani Safaa whenperforming at friends’ and relatives’places (ibid., 72). From Zanzibar, taarabis said to have spread to other parts ofthe East African coast, includingMombasa and Lamu. Over a long pe-riod of time, taarab music was gradu-ally modeled to fit local musical stylesand taste, hence explaining the oftennotable differences in taarab perfor-mance and production among variousSwahili communities spread along theEast African coast and its environs.

That taarab has often been definedas an importation of Arabic music fromEgypt (see, for instance, Saleh 1980 and

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Khatib 1987) follows from what Askew(1997) calls a “Zanzibar-centric” ap-proach to Swahili culture, which seeksto locate all the “civilized” Swahili cul-tural phenomena to Zanzibar or itsArab settlers of the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries. In my discussionof taarab music I wish to show thattaarab in Zanzibar is one among otherstyles of Swahili music in East Africa.Each style developed following themusical context of each area. ThusTanga, Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Dar esSalaam have styles of taarab that reflectthe specificity of their local musicalcontexts. For instance, Mombasa taarabclearly reflects the fast, rich rhythms oflocal ngoma 11 such as chakacha andvugo performed in and aroundMombasa. Tanga taarab has a clear em-phasis on guitar rhythms, following thebeni (brass band) tradition of the area(see Ranger 1975 for a discussion of thismusic tradition); and Zanzibar taarabhas a clear emphasis on Egyptian or-chestra-style ensemble with morestring instruments than percussion.Granted these regional differences, at-tributing the “origin” of taarab musicto Zanzibar is erroneous. Indeed,taarab as a Swahili musical genre datesfurther back than mentioned in thishistorical account. A popular Swahilimusical practice associated with thekibangala (a seven-stringed lute) wasperformed in Lamu for a long timeprior to the beginning of taarab musicin Zanzibar.12 The kibangala was usedin the performance of a music genrereferred to as kinanda that also includeddrums and string instruments (specifi-cally, two drums and a lute) as part of

its ensemble. Although this kind ofmusic was regarded as provocative inthe Muslim world, it was very popu-lar among the local Lamu people. Apicture taken around 1907 in Lamu, bya British photographer, shows womendancing to kinanda (Graebner 1991,187) which Nabhany says was usuallydanced by men in pairs in front of anaudience until they were very tired.13

One of Zanzibar’s earliest musiciansand founding member of the firsttaarab group to perform at the turn ofthe century (Nadi Ikhwani Safaa),Shaib Abeid (1890-1974) rememberedhaving been taught taarab songs in theLamu style (Topp 1992, 73).Mohammed Kijumwa, a poet and per-former from Lamu, started with per-forming the kibangala, which he car-ried with him to Zanzibar when he wasinvited by the then Sultan of Zanzibarto go to the island and train and leadan orchestra and dancers. A photo-graph taken in Zanzibar in 1907 showsKijumwa playing the kibangala(Graebner 1991). Given these stories, itis doubtful that taarab started in Zan-zibar; one can only speculate that theearlier historical account was in keep-ing with a “Zanzibar-centric” accountof Swahili musical history. If anything,the term taarab used to designate amusical style does not enter the Swahilivocabulary until the 1930s, through theEnglish-Swahili dictionaries (Graebner1991, 181). This is the same time thatEgyptian musicians such asMohammed Abdi-Al-Wahhab andUmm Kulthum were quite popular andhad influence on taarab. In short, amusical style whose current name only


13

enters into the musical scene in the lastsixty years shows the possibility of dif-ferent musical styles developing in dif-ferent regions with different names.Thus the term taarab is only a recentreference to musical performances thatexisted before the late seventeenth cen-tury in which some scholars haveplaced the development of taarab mu-sic in East Africa. Kinanda or kibangalaare some of the terms previously usedto refer to musical performances thatare now commonly referred to astaarab.

Taarab music may have been asso-ciated with interaction among differentcultural groups, but the most influen-tial mark it has created in East Africa isits ability to bring many women to thelimelight in popular music. Indeed,most of the successful women musi-cians in East Africa in this century havebeen taarab musicians. For a societythat not only discourages women fromsinging in public but also from mixingwith men in public, to be successful intaarab music is quite an achievementfor women. Much of taarab’s historyrests on women musicians. Siti bintiSaad is one such musician whose in-volvement and contribution to theshaping of Swahili popular music is awell-known historical fact.

Taarab and Islam in Kenya: Are TheyCompatible?

One of the major defining factors ofSwahili culture is Islam. In the absenceof a tradition of adherence to Islam, theSwahili would no doubt be defined

quite differently. It is a truism that Is-lam is a way of life for those who prac-tice. That notwithstanding, we find aninteresting divide in perceptions abouttaarab between conservative Muslimsand their liberal counterparts inMombasa. The former are openly op-posed to the performance or consump-tion of taarab by Muslims, while thelatter will condone taarab as long as itdoes not interfere with their religiouspractices. In this latter case many of thepeople I talked to in Mombasa aboutthis tension stated that only whentaarab was instrumental in movingpeople away from their concentrationupon Allah, especially duringRamadan and prayer time, was it con-sidered negative. When I asked AminaFakii, a radio program producer withKenya Broadcasting Corporation’sSwahili Service, to tell me somethingabout taarab, she said she had nothingto say about it. She gave me the anal-ogy of asking a Muslim to talk aboutalcohol—it would all be negative. Sheconceded that she dislikes taarab be-cause it is not in keeping with religion.I consider these to be sentiments thatrepresent those of conservative Mus-lims in Mombasa. Liberal Muslims, onthe other hand, often see nothingwrong with taarab music. Again onemust look at culture as stated and cul-ture as practiced to understand the ten-sion that may ensue between groupsagainst and for taarab music. Theseviews can best be understood whenjuxtaposed with the general views ex-pressed about music in Muslim com-munities. Citing Lois Ibsen al Faruqi’sdelineation of the hierarchy of perfor-

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mance genres in Muslim societies,Marjorie Franken says the followingabout music and religion in Muslimsocieties:

Some forms of [music] are consid-ered halal, that is, legitimate andeven beneficial, but there are alsoforms of music that are haram [pol-luted] and these are to be avoided.Muslim law, scholarship, and popu-lar consensus all agree that somemusical forms are acceptable with-out question, but below these comeforms which are permitted, but notnecessarily beneficial. At anotherlevel below this type of music is anunnamed category that represents a“gray area” where individuals areallowed to make their own judge-ments. Finally come the haram cat-egories of music at the very bottomof the hierarchy, where the badcontext(s) and associations at thiskind of music are positively harm-ful (Franken 1991, 164).

From this hierarchy we have ten ex-amples of performance genres that Iwill list here as given by Franken:

a) Qur’anic chant (qira’sh)

b) Religious chants (adhan, tahlil/talbiyyah, takbirat madih, tasbith, andtahmid)

c) Chanted poetry with noblethemes (shi’r)

d) Family/celebration music (lulla-bies, women’s songs, weddingsongs, etc.

e) “Occupational” music (caravan

chants, shepherd’s tunes, worksongs, etc.)

f) Military music (tabl khanah)g) Vo-cal/instrumental improvisations(layali, avaz, taqasin, istikhbar, etc.)

h) Serious metered songs (dawr,muwashshah, tasnif, etc.) and instru-mental music (bashraf, da’irah, sama’i,dulab, etc.)

i) Music related to pre-Islamic ornon-Islamic origins

j) Sensuous music associated withunacceptable contexts

From this list of performance genres wecan place taarab music in different lev-els because it does not fit in any onerestrictive category. As I have shown,taarab incorporates many styles frommultiple cultural contexts and wouldthus partly be placed in categories d),g), h), i), or j), but to categorize it as ei-ther halal or haram depends on theperception of the person involved. Thisis why there are differing views on therelationship that taarab has with Mus-lim culture among many Swahilipeople in Mombasa. For those whohold with conservative Islamic ideol-ogy (like Amina Fakii), there is hardlyany relationship between taarab andreligion. For one, taarab includes theplaying of drums (ngoma) and otherpercussive instruments that are usuallyassociated with evil spirits. Again,some of the lyrics found in taarab aresensuous and hence likely to makepeople have undesirable thoughts.


15

Thus instead of people concentratingon God, taarab lures them to think ofthings that are not godly.

Sometimes, however, taarab mayserve as a precursor to a religious func-tion, as was the case on January 10,1997, when Sitara Bute was entertain-ing Muslims in Majengo-Msaji inMombasa to usher in the holy monthof Ramadan. This performance drewopposition from conservative Muslims.About twenty Muslim youths led bythe local Imam, Sheikh MohammedIdris, disrupted the performance amidshouts of “takbir! takbir! (God is great).”The youths, who had come from thenearby Sakina Mosque after twareh(special prayers before the beginningof Ramadan), had the music stopped,as the Imam grabbed the cordless mi-crophone seeking to know why Mus-lims were enjoying music during theeve of the month of Ramadan. As theyouth group got rowdy, threatening tolynch the participants if they did notstop, Sitara Bute abandoned the perfor-mance and ran off-stage. Later the nextday, Sitara Bute was quoted as seekingto know the Muslim law that was usedas the basis for stopping her musicalperformance. She said that they wereall Muslims and that when the moonis sighted nobody is allowed any formof entertainment after midnight. Buttheir performance was scheduled forthe hours between 7 and 11 p.m. andthus was not contravening any law(Sunday Nation , 12 January 1997). Ac-cording to strict rules stipulated by Is-lam, however, it does not matter whattime the performance was scheduledto take place; the fact is that for Mus-

lims to perform taarab is undesirable.This intolerance of performance or con-sumption of taarab has led many Mus-lim leaders to continually campaignagainst the airing of taarab music onradio and television. Some of thepeople I talked to about this campaignstated that the erratic airing of taarabmusic on Kenyan television pointed tothe success of this campaign. Others feltthat it was due to a lack of interest inSwahili cultural practices that can bediscerned in many of the national cul-tural programs. So far, three radio sta-tions have weekly programs dedicatedto taarab music that reach most of thecountry’s population.

A Description of Taarab Performancein Mombasa

As in many other Swahili communities,weddings in Mombasa provide the beststage for the performance of taarab.Due to financial constraints, manySwahili families are unable to havewedding celebrations that last morethan two days. In the past, Swahiliwedding celebrations would last up toseven days, and on each day there wasa form of celebration that involvedfeeding and entertaining guests at thewedding home. It is thus common tofind a taarab band hired to performboth for the afternoon session after theformal marriage ceremony at themosque as well as at the all-night ses-sion (kesha ) when the bride is to beshown to the crowds. The choice of ataarab band to be hired for these per-formances may reflect the host families’musical taste (including their own cul-

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tural identity), the fame of the band inthe community at the time, or theband’s affordability. Many informantsI talked to agreed that when a host fam-ily hires an expensive taarab band, theyare making a public statement abouttheir social status.14 For example, a fam-ily that identifies itself with Arabic cul-ture will have a taarab performancethat not only concentrates on Arabicmusical styles but also entails listeningrather than dancing, especially if theguest list includes both men andwomen, whereas a family that identi-fies itself with African culture based onthe various groups living in Mombasawill have an audience more given todancing than listening. Whenever ataarab band is invited to perform at anindividual family’s home, the bandmembers know in advance the culturalidentity that the hiring family articu-lates and thus the band is ready to per-form music that is appropriate for thatparticular context.

Afternoon sessions usually lastabout three hours, while night sessionslast about eight hours and start around10:00 p.m. Each band has a perfor-mance calendar in which thebandleader marks the days they arescheduled to perform each month. Af-ter practice sessions (usually held at thehomes of bandleaders), the band mem-bers are reminded where and when tomeet for the performance sessions.Transportation to and from the venuewhere the band is to perform is orga-nized and paid for by the host familyor their representative. If the band ar-ranges for its own transportation, thecosts incurred will be included in the

overall charge made to the host familyfor the entire performance.

When the band arrives at the venueof the performance the members arewelcomed into the home by a personappointed as an usher for the day’s cel-ebrations. Usually, the band members,along with other guests and relatives,are served a meal of spiced rice mixedwith beef (pilau). Children sit togetheron a mat spread under a shed made ofjute sacks, while men and women sitseparately and are served in large traysfrom which all eat. Young men andwomen are frequently the servers andolder women cook the food. When ev-erybody has eaten, the band membersstart to position themselves at their des-ignated places at a special spot facingthe host family’s main house. If it is anall-night performance session the bandis stationed adjacent to the bride’s seatso that as people dance and listen tothe music, they can see the bride clearly.

People, mostly women, trickle inand sit in a semi-circle next to the bandwith some space in between them andthe band. This space is reserved fordancing. Soon the organist starts theday’s performance with some testingof the instrument before following itwith a short instrumental interlude,usually called bashraf. After the inter-lude, other members of the band taketheir positions and the band starts toplay one of the songs on schedule. Thelead singer, in consultation with theorganist/keyboard player, decideswhat song to sing, although during theperformance there are numerous re-quests made by members of the audi-ence for specific songs. This perfor-


17

mance also gives the band an opportu-nity to introduce some of its new com-positions as well as advertise other re-leases, which are usually available onaudiocassettes at Mbwana Radio Ser-vice.

Whenever the singer wants to intro-duce a new song in the existing sched-ule, he/she notifies the other membersby just mentioning the title. Manytimes the scheduled list of songs to beperformed is changed when audiencemembers make special requests forsongs. Other times the singer and theinstrumentalists will gauge the moodof the crowd and perform certain songsthat they deem appropriate for thatparticular context. At the end of theday, a successful taarab performance isone that has been able to balance thechoices of the band with the needs ofthe audience members. Thus, althoughthe performance is for the celebrationof a wedding, very little focus, if any,is projected onto the bride and groom.The taarab band has the mandate toentertain the audience, although attimes some musicians may overstepthe boundaries of that mandate.15 Mostsongs are composed from poems writ-ten by people not part of the taarabgroup. Thus each taarab group has apoet/composer who will write theirpoems and their names are hardlyknown to the public.

Compared to recorded songs avail-able on audiocassettes, taarab songs atweddings are usually longer and oftenthe band tends to play more dancerhythms—depending on the audiencemembers’ reaction to the music. Atmany of the taarab performances I ob-

served in Mombasa, whenever a songdrew a large crowd of dancers, themusicians would elongate the parts ofthe songs to which the people weredancing. Such parts would include a3-5 minute guitar and drum ensemblethat is not included in the recordedversion of the song. Thus a song at alive performance is usually longer (upto 10 minutes long) than one recordedin the studio (usually about 4 minuteslong). There are two major reasons forthis difference in song length. First, atthe live performance, the taarab band’sperformance is centered on the musi-cal interaction it has with the audiencemembers; thus, a song has longer in-strumental sections that the audiencedances to compared to the studio re-cordings. Second, in the studio, wheremost Mombasa taarab bands recordtheir music, the instruments and stu-dio equipment are owned and con-trolled by the studio owner. This allowsvery little room, if any, for musiciansto influence the length of a recording.Furthermore, the musicians only usethe recording studio to make record-ings and not for rehearsals. Some mu-sicians own instruments that they mayuse at live performances but not dur-ing studio recordings where the studioequipment prevails. As mentionedabove, at live performances sometaarab songs combine melodies fromother genres such as chakacha andmsondo. Music from these othergenres is usually recorded and sold asdistinct, which further shows the dif-ference between live performances andstudio recordings.

Live performances also feature

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songs by other local or internationalbands, which may be special requestsfrom members of the audience.16 Whensuch a song is performed, the audiencemembers sing in unison with the bandsingers. Sometimes, the performance ofanother band’s song may include justportions of the original compositionwith the rest of the song being on-the-spot innovations to blend with thatspecific context. Thus as the musictempo picks up, the instrumentalistsmay insert other local song melodiesto the delight of the audience members.Occasionally, a member of the audiencewill dance towards the band and givemoney to one of the performers andthen dance back to her original spot.This act of tipping is important in anytaarab performance for a number ofreasons: first, it is one way that the bandcan make some extra money; second,it shows that the person tipping likesthe lyrics sung by the musician s/hetips; and, third, it is a way of sending amessage to another person in the au-dience. I discuss these reasons at lengthlater in the paper.

The women in the audience areelaborately dressed in shiny dresses;some have their heads covered, whileothers do not. Some are in dresses ofsimilar color or pattern. Others havewrapped themselves in leso/kanga withthe words that usually are printed onthese cloths conspicuously visible.These cloths are also used in dancingwhen tied around the hips to enhancethe dancer’s hip gyrations. Sometimesthe dancing turns into a display ofone’s prowess in the style or mirrorsthe instructional dance performed by

young women of marriageable age inpreparation for correct hip movementduring coitus. During a hip-gyrationdance the performer stands with herfeet slightly apart, knees bent, armsbent at the elbows and held up close tothe torso with the head pushed backslightly. Then she gyrates her hipswhose movement is enhanced by theleso tied around them. She may do thiswhile lowering her body closer to theground and slowing down the tempoto the delight of the onlookers.

Men hardly dance at these perfor-mances, always staying in the periph-ery and watching as the women danceand get involved in the performance.At some of the performances I attendedin Mombasa and the surrounding areaI observed a few occasions in which aman would go up to the musicians andtip them while another would be danc-ing at the periphery. Many of therhythms used during these taarab per-formances draw from women’s dancesand musical genres, which might ex-plain partly the overwhelming major-ity of women dancers at such functions.Moreover, in Swahili communities inMombasa the part of wedding celebra-tions that includes cooking, entertain-ing, and cleaning up is reserved forwomen and men often feel odd partici-pating in these performances. More-over, much of traditional Swahili mu-sic is divided along gender lines andthus men and women have songs andperformances specific to their gender.Taarab as a popular musical genre,however, does not clearly reflect thisdichotomy. Yet due to the associationtaarab has with that part of a wedding


19

where women are mostly involved,dancing and participation is often seenas entirely dominated by women. Fur-ther, none of the dance rhythms in thetaarab music performed at many wed-dings corresponds to songs associatedwith men, but rather clearly incorpo-rates rhythms found in many women’smusical performances. This may thusexplain why women form the majorityof audience members at taarab perfor-mances as well as being the prominentdancers.

After each performance, membersof a taarab band count the money thatthey have accumulated through tipsfrom the audience members and shareit out according to each band’s proce-dure. The larger amount paid to theband by the host family for the perfor-mance is shared later after the wholeamount has been paid to the band. Ac-cording to some of the musicians I in-terviewed, the money is shared equallywith all the members after the band haspaid for any hired equipment and othermiscellaneous costs. Others said thatthe money is shared out according topositions in the band, where the owneror bandleader gets a larger share. Ifound that this arrangement entirelydepends on the kind of relationship theband members have with each other.Some members may have standing feesthat they charge for each performancewhile others share whatever remainsafter the band’s costs of performancehave been paid.

Given the monetary benefits thatcome with such a performance for ataarab band and especially since thereare few families who can afford to hire

a taarab band, competition for invita-tions to perform at weddings is part ofMombasa’s taarab culture. In manycases band members will accuse rivalgroups of trying to curtail their chancesof getting invited to perform at wed-dings. Occasionally I heard of caseswhere some members of taarab bandswould state that a member or membersof another band had put a spell on themso that they would not perform at wed-dings. Individual musicians would alsoclaim that a rival musician had been tothe mganga (witch doctor) to bewitchthe musician so that s/he could losehis/her voice or be unable to play his/her specific instrument. How then doso many bands in Mombasa conducttheir business given this precariouscontext of operation? Let me now turnto the taarab groups in Mombasa andthe relationships among them.

The Relationship Among TaarabGroups in Mombasa

One notable quality about taarabgroups in Mombasa is that despite theirlarge number, there are few musicalinstruments. This small number meansthat the few instruments there are serveall the Mombasa taarab bands. Somegroups, such as Zein Musical Party,Mohammed Khamis Juma Bhalo, andZuhura & Party, have their own instru-ments. The rest of the groups usuallyhire their instruments from MbwanaRadio Service, where they also makethe recordings of their music that aresold at the same premises. At timesmembers of these different groupsteam up and perform together, espe-

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cially on foreign tours as has been thecase in the past few years. During thisperiod, Maulidi (of Maulidi & Party),Sitara (of Diamond Star), Zuhura (ofZuhura & Party) and Mohammed AdioShigoo (of Maulidi & Party) haveteamed up and made tours to Europein 1992, 1994, and 1996 under the man-agement of taarab promoter and re-searcher Wenner Graebner of Germany.

This teaming-up does not necessar-ily reflect an existing healthy workingrelationship among these groups sincethere is always a spirit of competitionwith outright animosity expressed inpublic through their songs. For in-stance, Sitara and Maulidi in some oftheir compositions have engaged inthis kind of tension where they attackeach other. The following songs,“Wembe wa kutu” by Sitara and“Nataka sema” by Maulidi are suchexamples (translations by author).

NATAKA SEMA (I WANT TOTALK) by MAULIDI

Refrain:Today I want to talkI want to talkToday I want to talkI want to talk today, my friends,

I have words to say, listen residentsAbout a wise person whose needsare unendingS/he is inside a well but begs for amouthful of water

Surely this world is full of surprisesDo not blame me people I wish totell youThere are ten people sleeping in onebed

The person is full of greed s/hedoesn’t know what s/he is doingThat’s why s/he is always blamingfor lack of the right thingS/he has abandoned steak for 1/4kilo of bone

When this happens there is an up-roarAnd two are running awayThe one being chased is behind thechaser ahead

There is a witch who is never repu-tableFor lack of mercy people are perish-ingWhen they are well the sick com-plain

WEMBE WA KUTU (BLUNT RA-ZOR BLADE) by SITARA

Let them talk about me I do not re-ally careI don’t want anything from any oneand I don’t copy their styleI have chosen a blunt one and thatis their blade

Refrain:A pot sits on three stones I will cooktheir tongues17

That blunt one I know their bladeOn three stones I see their potThey mix everything, concoctingtheir instigationBut whatever they wish will neverhappen

Nasty words is their businessRidicule and laughter is their char-acterWhat’s bad to you is good to others


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You see them searching in theirmeetingsThey talk and disrespect othersThere is one God and ours is nottheirs

Maulidi’s song (released after Sitara’s),talks about Sitara, who was a memberof his group until late 1994. He appar-ently regards her as greedy for leavinghis group (which he compares to steak)to form her own group (which he calls1/4 kilo of bone). Sitara, for her part,says that what Maulidi and his groupdo is talk about her and that she has ablunt blade for them (meaning they areso low they are not worth a sharp bladeto be shaven or cut to size). This com-petition and the singing of songs thatchallenge other individuals or groupsis in the Swahili tradition of expressiveculture, but many taarab bands usethese songs to express their rivalry.This rivalry is intense, at times leadingto accusations of witchcraft and badblood. In 1994, I attended a taarab per-formance in Mwatsafulu in Likoni (thehometown of New Star taarab group),Mombasa, where Maulidi & Party wereperforming. As the group started play-ing, there was general consensusamong the musicians that their instru-ments were not producing the kind ofmusic that the group normally per-forms. This was immediately attributedto witchcraft by the local band, NewStar. Individual players and singersmay also blame each other for any mis-fortune befalling their performance.For example, there was a rumor inMombasa in 1996 that both Sitara Bute

and Malkia Rukia, who once per-formed with Maulidi & Party, put aspell on each other’s voices and thuswere not singing as well as before.18

Such allegations indicate the rivalrythat exists among taarab groups andmusicians.

When it comes to making record-ings, many taarab musicians inMombasa may ask the few well-knowninstrumentalists available to play theaccompanying rhythms for them. Thismay mean that Mohammed AdioShigoo, an organist, and Rajab Omar, arhythm guitarist, may give instrumen-tal accompaniment to Sitara and Dia-mond Star, Maulidi and Party, andMohammed Yusuf Tenge. This sharingof instrumentalists may thus accountfor the consistent use of one particularperson’s name (especially the singer)to identify the musical group. Apartfrom New Star, Diamond Star, andJohar Orchestra, the rest of the groupsare identified by the names of the mainsingers and who are usually thebandleaders. The name of the poet whocomposed the lyrics and those of theinstrumentalists are never mentionedon the audiocassettes of their recordedmusic, which may also account for thecommon practice of singing songs doneby other groups. It is my argument thatthis individualistic practice of identi-fying the group with a singer’s nameis influenced by commercialism, wherethe audiocassette, as well as the invita-tion to perform for a social function fora fee, are identified with a single per-son.

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Taarab, Performance, Voice, andSocial Commentary

During the performance of taarab mu-sic, members of the audience as wellas the musicians themselves pay a lotof attention not only to the music andtextual message but also to the contextof the performance. Therefore, the waythe music is performed (be it in a slowor fast tempo, for instance), the implicitinteraction between singer and text, theinteraction between musicians and au-dience members, and the interactionbetween audience members, are crucialin expressing the different meaningsand interpretations the songs are given.By highlighting this performative no-tion of taarab, I extend the analysis oftaarab performance beyond textualanalysis so as to include that part of theperformance that “communicates non-textual messages” (Askew 1997, 13).This is particularly important becauseat a single taarab performance multiplemessages are often communicatedthrough multiple media. As Askewputs it, “meaning [in a taarab perfor-mance] is located at the intersection oftext, performance, embodied action(e.g., tipping audience members), andthe intimacies of local knowledge . . .”(1997, 17).

When a singer performs the text ofa taarab song, s/he is not confined torendering a specific message becausethe symbolic and metaphorical natureof the text subsequently opens the songup to numerous meanings and inter-pretations. It is this nature of multiplemeanings that makes taarab particu-larly popular and relevant in numer-

ous contexts because a single song canbe used by many people to commentor reflect upon numerous social events.Thus while I agree with Kelly Askewthat “texts and performance lose somelayers of meaning when heard andviewed in isolation, at a distance fromthe community that provides perform-ers, context, audience, and communalnorms against which behavior is mea-sured . . .” (1997, 18), I extend my ar-gument to note that given the non-spe-cific reference in taarab texts, the mean-ings given those texts are always emer-gent and relational. Therefore, it is notnecessarily the local knowledge of whocomposed the song, why it was com-posed, when it was composed, andwhat the song is supposed to mean,that constitutes the richness of themeanings of its performance. It is theassociation between events in any com-munity or household with the interpre-tations of the meanings carried by thesong (independent of previous inter-pretations) that gives taarab songs theirpower and meaning. Thus an audiencein Nairobi can interpret a taarab songsung and composed in Mombasa to fitthat particular Nairobi context with noreference to any meanings associatedwith the song in Mombasa. I argue thatit is the potential of Swahili taarabsongs to be “read” and “heard” differ-ently not only at different places (con-texts) but also at different time periods,that makes Swahili songs such an im-portant cultural repertoire. Malika’ssong, “Vidonge,” had a large appeal toupcountry Kenyans to the extent thatit numbered among the top ten songsin the country for two months in 1993.


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In my opinion this is despite a lack ofknowledge of the song’s original con-text of composition or the specific nu-ances carried in the lyrics. The audiencemembers at any taarab performanceare thus able to continuously use thesongs by manipulating them to fit theirspecific social contexts. For instance, fora song entitled “Chungu” by Zuhura,one can make multiple interpretationsof the intended message. Here is anexample of the first stanza in whichZuhura says:

To ask is not taboo please tell meI have exhausted my knowledge Ido not know what to dohow does a pot without a crack leak?

The general message relayed in thisstanza is that of a situation, a person,or object that is meant to be withoutfault, complete, and well guarded, butwhich is actually faulty. This song hasbeen interpreted variably in Mombasa.There are interpretations that equatethe pot with a woman who was se-cluded but who became pregnant outof wedlock; others equate it with a com-pany/firm whose operations weremeant to have been top secret yet manypeople knew about those operations;and others equate it with a highly re-spected politician who was rumored tohave been involved in questionablebusiness transactions. It is this bound-less nature of the meanings that can begenerated from a single song thatmakes taarab a crucial tool for socialcommentary. Even in situations wherea song’s composition is triggered byreal life situations of which the com-munity is aware, that initial meaning

competes with other meanings that areconstantly generated from the samesong. The essence of a taarab song is inwhat it “says” to a consumer ratherthan the meanings it retains from itsoriginal composition.

Indeed, many taarab songs do notmake specific reference to people orevents and thus are suitable for thesemultiple interpretations. In view of thismultiplicity of interpretations, a taarabperformance is therefore a “dialogicprocess between and among perform-ers and audience members” (Askew1997, 17). Through such a process, bothmen and women are able to reflexivelyand actively comment on and reviewtheir social interactions, expectations,aspirations, and practices (see, for in-stance, Abelmann 1996; Turino 1995;and Bruner 1984, for a discussion ofhow history, identity, and textual mean-ings are contested in everyday culturalinteractions).

Besides the interpretation that is ac-corded the song text, other facets of theperformance are crucial to a better un-derstanding of it. For instance, evenwhen the message does not specificallyrefer to a person or episode, the wordsin the text may beg for a particularmeaning or interpretation, as seen inthe following song entitled “JanaNilala” (“Yesterday I Slept”) by Sitara:

Yesterday I slept, dreamt of you, andthought about you,because your love torments me.Don’t walk provocatively, you tor-ment meDon’t look at me provocatively, youtorment me

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Many of the people in Mombasa whoseopinion I sought regarding the possibleinterpretations of this song inMombasa agreed that the song shouldhave been sung by a man because themessage is directed to a woman.19 In-deed, one of my informants mentionedthat the song as sung by Sitara, awoman, suggested a lesbian relation-ship since “normally” a woman wouldnot tell another woman she is walkingor looking at her provocatively. Thisparticular interpretation shows that insinging a taarab song there is a closerelationship between the singer (voice)and the message of the song. Thesinger’s voice is thus not neutral butsituated and gendered.20 The singer’svoice represents a male or female per-spective, which often directs the read-ing of the song. The voice also servesas an identity marker for a taarabgroup. In Mombasa out of abouteleven taarab groups, eight use thename of the lead singer to identify theirrecorded music and the group’s name.Although there is a notable degree ofconsistency in the vocal style of Swahilitaarab singing that emphasizes nasalsinging, a singer’s voice is expected toreflect his/her gendered voice mode.Thus, for instance, some informantsconsistently stated that MohammedYusuf Tenge was not a good singer be-cause of his use of a high pitched voicethat these informants called a “female”voice (sauti ya kike). Such an observa-tion clearly shows a knowledge of cer-tain cultural stipulations of voice typessuitable for men and women; when-ever one does not follow his or herstipulated type, then one is deemed as

deviating from the norm.On a performance level, voice acts

both as a social medium of communi-cation as well as a musical instrument,and plays an important role in con-structing the meanings and interpreta-tions of Swahili taarab songs. During alive performance, a taarab song’s mes-sage is heightened by the way that thesinger uses her/his voice, such as invariation of pitch and tone. I noted forinstance that while performing hersong “Vidonge,” Malika used her voicecraftily to enhance the meaning of thesong. She would pause between syl-lables and words in the song to empha-size the meaning of the previous orsubsequent line. In the third line of thesong Malika states, “jamani wivumwaona mi silali peke yangu” (you arejealous I do not sleep alone). She sangthis line in a slightly higher pitch thanthat used in the rest of the verse. Sucha pitch is one that resembles the phras-ing of a question in a regular conversa-tion, and was so used in order to em-phasize the act of jealousy and to sub-sequently tell off those involved. Shealso occasionally repeated certain linesin the song to emphasize their mean-ings.

The singer often brings out the ex-tra-linguistic meanings of the song byinserting non-linguistic sounds andnuances (cf. Erlmann 1996; Sugarman1997; Turino 1995; Watermann 1990).The singer’s body language during theperformance also contributes to themeaning of the song as s/he gestureswith the hands, the entire body, or justthe face. Thus performance is a com-municative process that could not be


25

fully grasped from a textual analysis ofthe song.

Audience members also contributeto this meaning construction in the per-formance as they sing along, dance,request particular songs, or tip the per-formers.21 By tipping and dancing,audience members at taarab perfor-mances inject and display the variousmeanings attributed and attributable toeach of the songs. Usually, an audiencemember will stand and either dance fora while and then proceed to tip themusician of her/his choice, or standand go straight to tip the musician thenreturn to one’s spot. The most commonpractice is the former through whichthe audience members, especiallywomen, display their clothes, jewelry,and hairstyles. Moreover, when a per-son stands to dance to a song or to tipa musician, that person is either show-ing their preference for that song, tak-ing the opportunity to register her/hispresence at the performance, or is iden-tifying with the message entailed in thelyrics. In many instances all the abovesituations intersect.

Identifying with the lyrics of ataarab song and the subsequent relay-ing of its message to a person presentin the audience is what makes taarabperformance a rich metaphor for socialcommentary. Other members of theaudience will often “read” this mes-sage, as this practice is one well-knownway to make use of the commonSwahili practice of indirect social con-frontation. The singer becomes thevoice of the listener stating what thelatter wants relayed to another. The lis-

tener will make the intended messageclear by repeating or singing loudlyparticular lines in the text or by throw-ing an accusing glance at the targetperson. For instance, if person A has adisagreement with person B, a taarabsong with a message that correspondsto that disagreement may be used byA to express to B her feelings and opin-ion on that particular disagreement. Ifthe disagreement were based on an ac-tion that could be interpreted as drivenby jealousy, a song that castigates jeal-ous people (mahasidi) would be appro-priate for the above-mentioned com-munication. To relay this message ex-pressed in the song, A will stand up,make sure that B sees her (either byturning and looking in B’s direction orby drawing attention by dancing), thenproceed to tip the musician singing thecorresponding lyrics. A may also singalong loudly some particular words inthe song that castigate the actions of B.In this way, A is using the musician asa medium/mediator to communicatewith B.

There are many songs whose mes-sages directly castigate unbecomingsocial practices. Age is an importantindicator of one’s expected social prac-tice among the Swahili, as it is amongother communities in Africa. There aresocial rules that govern one’s behaviorin respect to one’s age. For instance,since age comes with different respon-sibilities for both men and women inSwahili communities, whenever an in-dividual behaves in a way deemed outof step with his/her age category, s/he is castigated. This is exactly whatZuhura’s song entitled “Nyanya”

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(grandmother) represents; it is a casti-gation of older women who are strug-gling to be young. In part, the songstates:

You are cutting off your ear lobeswhat have they done to you?22

You want youth and it’s not possibleYou are cheating yourself Hassan’smother

Your days are over yet you don’tseem to realizeYou force yourself to be youngBut you can’t bring back your past

Zuhura performed this song at a wed-ding in Kisauni in February 1997 to acapacity crowd that included manywomen of all ages and a few men whoas usual stood or sat behind the womenwho were seated in a semi-circle nextto the band. On hearing the melodythat marked the beginning of the songa group of young women seated to-gether in the middle of the audienceululated and cheered in unison. AsZuhura sang the text of the song, theseyoung women were singing along andwaving their hands in the air, makingit clear that they were in agreementwith the message. Someone from thecrowd shouted above the singing,“Afadhali Zuhura uwaeleze, wamezidi!”(Tell them Zuhura, they are too much!).One young woman got up and dancedher way to Zuhura and danced aroundfor a while before tipping her and danc-ing back to her spot amid cheers fromher colleagues with whom she had sat.An older woman shouted from onecorner, “Hakuna moyo kongwe!” (Thereis no old heart!) when Zuhura sang the

last stanza of the song that states:

Many girls of great worth can’t getpartnersForcing them to mess themselves upWhy can’t you accept you are old?

As the song came to an end, the youngwomen who were cheering requestedfor the song to be played again. BeforeZuhura could decide whether to playit or another song, the hostess came andwhispered something to her. ThenZuhura announced that the song wasnot aimed at every grandmother butrather to those who were unbecoming(wenye vishindo). It was evident thatsomeone had complained to the host-ess about the meaning of the song, andfor the hostess to ensure that her wed-ding party was not marred by contro-versy she requested Zuhura to clarifythe specific person(s) targeted by thesong. This episode clearly shows howtaarab songs can create immediate fo-rums for social contest on practices andtheir meanings.

Besides the texts of songs that makereference to a social practice that is seenby some of the musicians and their fansas unbecoming, the melodic structureof a song may point to the nature ofthe song’s meaning as well. Songs thatcastigate unbecoming social behaviorare usually performed in fast beats withmore emphasis on the drumming pat-terns of triples and duples that areplayed in interlocking patterns. Thisstyle is similar to that of “women’staarab” in Zanzibar (Topp 1992; ToppFargion 1993). Here musical rhythmsassociated with women’s songs and


27

performances are incorporated intotaarab accompanied with texts that“use strong and often abusive languagewith the intention of hurting and de-grading the subject in the eyes of thepublic” (Topp Fargion 1993, 118). Incontrast, songs with messages aboutGod or about a person’s lover, wheresentiments of endearment are ex-pressed, are performed in slowrhythms. Other scholars have shownhow music structure and performancehas been used to investigate socialstructure (Feld 1984) as well as to showdistinct social identity (Turino 1995). Inthis way, therefore, we can see that onecan draw certain conclusions about asociety from an observation not onlyof the content of its music, but also ofthe structure of its music. Such an ob-servation cannot, however, be made in-dependent of other factors such as con-text, social meanings, and the processesof making music in that particular cul-ture.

Conclusion

Ethnomusicologist Veit Erlmann statesthat “performance with its potential forambiguous representation and expres-sion, mediates between the transforma-tive action of everyday consciousnessand the socio-cultural form” (1996, 28).Swahili taarab music is performancethat enables both men and women toexpress and represent the relationshipbetween socio-cultural form and socialpractice by using it as an arena wherethe social is performed in order to ana-lyze and reconstitute the cultural. Eachparticipant at these performances is

positioned in such a way that whatevers/he does contributes to the creationof socio-cultural meaning of the rela-tions that exist between performers.Thus, whereas the song lyrics may bereferring to some ambiguous event,person, or trait, they are used as diag-nostic of larger cultural structureswithin the society. I have thus shownthrough this paper that popular musicis a useful tool in exploring and ana-lyzing a community’s culture and his-tory because music is considered an im-portant window into a culture. Also byusing music, I am taking up analyticaltools used by the Swahili themselves,and have thus avoided objectifyingSwahili culture.

Notes 1 Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany is a well-knownscholar of Swahili culture. He is also of theNabhany lineage that ruled Lamu in thenineteenth century and whose most endur-ing social identity is an emphasis on reli-gious scholarship.2 Sheikh Nabhany. Interview by author.Mombasa, March 12, 1992.3 Sitara Bute. Interview by author.Mombasa, June 18, 1994.4 Zuhura Swaleh. Interview by author.Mombasa, June 21, 1994.5 Both Chakacha and Msondo are tradi-tional musical performances of the Africancommunities commonly referred to asMijikenda who live in close contact withthe Swahili of the Kenyan coast. 6 Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany. Interview byauthor. Mombasa, June 3, 1994.7 In 1996 and 1997, for instance, two na-tional music festivals were held in Nairobiat which representatives of the various mu-sical genres in Kenya performed at national

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stadia. Taarab music was conspicuouslyunrepresented despite Malika, a taarabmusician, having won the coveted KenyanArtist of the Year Award in 1993.8 Other than Paul Kavyu’s (1978) paper noother material known to me had attemptedto present popular music as a research en-terprise in Kenya.9 I am using the concept of traditional mu-sic to refer to music that was deemed in-digenous to people before any contact withother cultures of the world. See Nettl (1983)for a discussion of how ethnomusicologicalresearch tended to avoid popular musicgenres in non-western cultures in the lastthree decades. In the last ten years, therehas emerged an interest in studies of popu-lar performance under the rubric of “Cul-tural Studies” in England and the U.S.;hence many scholars have now startedcritically looking at popular music as cul-tural phenomena but have also intensifiedstudies of music of the Western world (cf.Grossberg 1997a, 1997b; Grossberg et al.1992; Hall and Gay 1996)10 Maulidi Juma. Interview by author.Mombasa, June 10, 1994.11 The word ngoma in Kiswahili denotesmultiple referents including a drum, adance, or a performance. I use it in thisparticular context to refer to a musical per-formance.12 Sheikh Nabhany. Interview by author.Mombasa, June 3, 1994; also Graebner 1991.I am grateful to Agnes Brugger for trans-lating Graebner’s paper from German toEnglish.13 Sheikh Nabhany. Interview by author.Mombasa, June 3, 1994.14 In 1997 Juma Bhalo’s band was the mostexpensive to hire for an all night session.Bhalo usually charged between 40,000 and50,000 Kshs. for such a performance whilethe other bands would usually charge be-tween 30,000 and 40,000 Kshs. for the same

performance. This amount is equivalentto ten months’ salary for an office clerk inMombasa in a government office or sevenmonths of food supplies for a family offour. In December of 1997, one U.S. dollarwas equivalent to 63 Kshs.15 At one taarab performance in Lamu in1990, for instance, Juma Bhalo performeda song entitled Gunia (sack) that the audi-ence members interpreted as a direct ref-erence to the bride who was fat.16 In 1994 during one performance inMombasa by the Maulidi and Party group,Sitara Bute was keen to mention to mewhich songs were the band’s recordingsand which were not. She did this on not-ing that I was making recordings of theperformance.17 The locally used form of stove in Swahiliand other African communities (who donot use the modern stove) consists of threestones arranged in a triangle where thecooking pot is placed.18 This discourse on putting a spell on an-other musician is part of what is locallycalled ushirikina, which refers to a belief inevil and destructive powers. Such beliefs,although grounded in local African tradi-tional beliefs, especially among theMijikenda communities, also blend withIslamic beliefs in evil spirits or jinn, locallyreferred to as majini.19 One should note that such an interpreta-tion also makes reference to the culturalcontext of the speaker that reveals a socio-cultural training that associates sensualitywith heterosexuality.20 Susan Hirsch (1990) discusses the con-cept of voice and its relation to gender andpower among the Swahili of Mombasa andMalindi, Kenya. She states that both menand women use their voices as projecteddevices to reflect their socially expectedgender identities. For instance, men’sspeech is characterized by short sentences


29

while women’s speech is characterized bylong narrative sentences.21 See Topp (1992) and Askew (1997) forexamples of these practices at taarab per-formances in other Swahili communities aswell.22 This cutting of one’s ear lobes refers tothe practice among many African groupsto pierce ear lobes and insert objects to en-large the hole. This practice has sinceceased and been replaced with ear pierc-ing and the wearing of conventional ear-rings. To “cut ear lobes” is thus to try andhide the fact that the person involved is old,having worn traditional earrings thatstretched the ear lobes. It is, indeed, anopen rejection of “tradition” and an em-bracing of “modernity.”

Works Cited

and Gender Relations. MAthesis, Harvard University.

Bruner, Edward M., ed. 1984. Text, Play,and Story. Urbana: University ofIllinois Press.

Campbell, Carol Ann Arneson. 1983.Nyimboza Kiswahili: A Socio-Ethnomusicological Study of aSwahili Poetic Form. Ph.D.diss., University of Washing-ton.

______. 1976. An Introduction to theMusic of Swahili Women.Seminar Paper no. 68. Nairobi:Institute of African Studies,University of Nairobi.

______. 1974. Sauti Za Lamu: AnExploration Study of SwahiliMusic. MA thesis, Universityof Washington.

Chernoff, John. 1979. African Rhythmand African Sensibility: Aesthet-ics and Social Action in AfricanMusical Idioms. Chicago: Uni-versity of Chicago Press.

______. Ethnography. Berkeley: Univer-sity of California Press.

DjeDje, Jacqueline and William Carter,eds. 1989. African Musicology:Current Trends: A festschrift pre-sented to J. H. Kwabena Nketia.Los Angeles: African StudiesCenter, University of Califor-nia, Los Angeles: Atlanta, Ga:Crossroads Press/AfricanStudies Association.

Erlmann, Veit. 1996. Nightsong: Perfor-mance, Power, and Practice inSouth Africa. Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press.

Fair, Laura. 1997. Music, Memory, andMeaning: The Kiswahili Re-

Abedi, Kaluti Amri. 1965. Sheria zaKutunga Mashairi na Diwani yaAmri. Dar es Salaam: EasternAfrican Literature Bureau.

Abelmann, Nancy. 1996. Echoes of thePast, Epics of Dissent: A SouthKorean Social Movement. Berke-ley: University of CaliforniaPress.

Anthony, David Henry. 1983. Cultureand Society in a Town in Tran-sition: A People’s History ofDar es Salaam 1865-1939. Ph.D.diss., University of Wisconsin.

Askew, Kelly Michelle. 1997. Perform-ing the Nation: Swahili Musi-cal Performance and the Pro-duction of Tanzanian NationalCulture. Ph.D. diss., HarvardUniversity.

______. 1992. Female Circles and MaleLines: The Dynamics ofSwahili Musical Performance

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cordings of Siti binti Saadi. Pa-per presented at the AnnualMeeting of the African StudiesAssociation, Columbus, Ohio.

______. 1996. Identity, Difference, andDance: Female Initiation inZanzibar, 1890 to 1930. Fron-tiers 17(3):146-172.

Feld, Steven. 1984. Sound Structure asSocial Structure. Ethnomusico-logy 28(3):383-410.

Franken, Marjorie Ann. 1991. IslamicCultural Codes in SwahiliDances. Journal for the Anthro-pological Study of Human Move-ment 6(4):146-158.

______. 1986. Anyone Can Dance: ASurvey and Analysis of SwahiliNgoma, Past and Present. Ph.D.diss., University of California.

Graebner, Werner. 1991. Tarabu:Populäre Musik am IndischenOzean. In Populäre Musik inAfrika, edited by Veit Erlmann.Berlin: Museum fürVölkerkunde.

Graham, Ronnie. 1992. The World ofAfrican Music. London: PlutoPress.

Grossberg, Lawrence. 1997a. Bringingit All Back Home: Essays on Cul-tural Studies . Durham, NC:Duke University Press.

______. 1997b. Dancing In Spite of My-self: Essays on Popular Culture.Durham, NC: Duke UniversityPress.

Grossberg, Lawrence, Cary Nelson,and Paula Treichler, eds. 1992.Cultural Studies. New York:Routledge.

Hall, Stuart and Paul du Gay, eds. 1996.Questions of Identity. London:Sage.

Harries, Lyndon. 1962. Swahili Poetry.Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hirsch, Susan. 1990. Gender and Dis-puting: Insurgent Voices inCoastal Kenyan MuslimCourts. Ph.D. diss., Duke Uni-versity.

Kavyu, Paul N. 1978. The Developmentof Guitar Music in Kenya.Jazzforschung 10:111-120.

Khatib, Muhammed S. 1987. Tarabu niFasihi Simulizi? [Is Taarab OralLiterature?]. Makala ya Seminaza Fasihi Simulizi (Seminar Pa-pers on Oral Literature). Dar esSalaam: Institute of Swahili Re-search.

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Merriam, Alan. 1982. African Music inPerspective. New York: GarlandPublishing.

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Mulokozi, Mugyabuso M. 1982. Protestand Resistance in Swahili Po-etry, 1600-1885. Kiswahili49(1):25-51.

Nettl, Bruno. 1983. The Study ofEthnomusicology: Twenty-nineIssues and Concepts. Urbana:University of Illinois Press.

Ntarangwi, Mwenda G. 1998. TaarabTexts, Gender, and Islam in anUrban East African Context:Social Transformations amongthe Waswahili of Mombasa,Kenya. Ph.D. diss., Universityof Illinois.

______. 1995. ‘Excuse Me but WomenEnjoy Driving a Trooper Too’:Taarab Music and the Recon-struction of the Meaning ofGender among the Swahili ofMombasa, Kenya. MA thesis,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Saleh, Seif Salim. 1980. Taarab Unguja[Taarab in Zanzibar]. Lugha Yetu37:35-47.

Shariff, Ibrahim Noor. 1983. The Func-tion of Dialogue Poetry inSwahili Society. Ph.D. diss.,Rutgers University.

Sugarman, Jane. 1997. EngenderingSong: Singing & Subjectivity atPrespa Albanian Weddings. Chi-cago: University of ChicagoPress.

Topp, Janet. 1992. Women and theAfricanization of Taarab inZanzibar. Ph.D. diss., School ofOriental and African Studies.

Topp Fargion, Janet. 1995. NyotaAlfajiriThe Zanzibari“Chakacha.” Swahili Forum42:125-131.

______. 1993. The Role of Women inTaarab in Zanzibar: An Histori-cal Examination of a Process ofAfricanization. The World ofMusic 35(2):109-125.

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ous social, cultural, and musical con-texts found in various Swahili settle-ments along the East African coast.Mombasa taarab, for instance, makesextensive use of drumming rhythmsborrowed from other forms of localmusic performance, thus giving thisbranch of taarab a distinctive soundwhen compared to that of the towns ofTanga, Zanzibar, or Tabora, in Tanza-nia. Ntarangwi makes another impor-tant contribution to the history oftaarab by providing evidence of theexistence of local precursors to taarab,known by other names, that wereplayed on instruments different fromthose popular in Zanzibar.

At the heart of this article is an ar-gument about the potential for perfor-mance to open up critical culturalspaces in which artists and their audi-ences can challenge dominant ideolo-gies and cultural practices, and it is herethat I would like to see Ntarangwi ex-pand his work. In this piece he providesnumerous, rich illustrations, based oninterviews and participant observationof performance, about the complexdebates taking place within Mombasaabout the place of taarab in relation toIslam. Over the last decade, Mombasahas been home to some of the mostvocal, and at times violent, debatesamongst various groups of Muslimsabout the meanings of Islam in EastAfrican life and politics. I would loveto see Ntarangwi provide us with an-other piece that goes into more detailabout the specifics of the ways in whichtaarab producers and consumers havefigured in, and contributed to, thesedebates. This article is full of examples

Laura FairUniversity of Oregon

USA

N tarangwi’s piece provides arich and comprehensive over-view of the history, perfor-

mance, culture, and sociology of taarab.Those unfamiliar with this genre ofEast African music will find that thisarticle provides them with a wonder-ful introduction to the topic. Ntarangwiis extremely well versed in the litera-ture on coastal history, African music,and the role of performance as a spacein which cultural codes and mores canbe contested and perhaps even trans-formed. The author makes wide use ofextensive interviews with numerousproducers and consumers of taarabmusic in Mombasa. In addition,through his description and analysis oftaarab performances at weddings,Ntarangwi is able to provide the readerwith a wonderful image that nearlybrings one of these concerts to life.

This article does a fabulous job ofoutlining the historical development oftaarab along the East African coast,making an important contribution tothe growing literature on the topic byanalyzing taarab’s development inMombasa and, to a lesser extent, theneighboring island of Lamu.Ntarangwi echoes recent challenges tothe “Zanzibarcentric” approach toSwahili culture (Askew 1997; Fair 2001)and provides concrete examples andillustrations of the ways in whichtaarab music developed distinctivestyles that were reflective of the vari-

Responses


33

of the various ways in which particu-lar taarab songs have been interpretedby various audiences and put to use to“create immediate forums for socialcontest on practices and their mean-ings.” Implicit in this article is an argu-ment about the ways in which popularfemale performers and their largely fe-male audiences are challenging theconservative orthodoxies regarding“women’s place” in Muslim societies,as expressed by some religious andcultural leaders in Mombasa, includingseveral individuals interviewed by theauthor. I look forward to reading moreby Ntarangwi in which his analysisfocuses more explicitly on the issue ofperformance as a space for contestingand transforming socio-cultural “giv-ens,” particularly those regardingwomen and gender. It is clear that theauthor has a lot of rich data that speaksto these topics and that he himself hasa great deal more to say on this topic.

Works Cited

Askew, Kelly Michelle 1997. Perform-ing the Nation: Swahili Musi-cal Performance and the Pro-duction of Tanzanian NationalCulture. Ph.D. diss., HarvardUniversity.

Fair, Laura. 2001. Culture, Communityand Identity in Post-abolition Ur-ban Zanzibar, 1890-1945. Athens,Ohio: Ohio University Press.

Katwiwa MuleSmith College

Massachusetts, USA.

I had an opportunity to read the en-tire manuscript of MwendaNtarangwi’s doctoral dissertation

on which the current article is based. Iam therefore especially pleased to beasked to respond to this article as partof the larger work on taarab music byartists of the Kenyan Coast.Ntarangwi’s “A Socio-Historical andContextual Analysis of Popular Musi-cal Performance Among the Swahili ofMombasa, Kenya” is both an importantcontribution to the emerging perspec-tives on anthropological, gender, andliterary issues in Africa, and to thestudy of African music. Of particularsignificance is the centrality thatNtarangwi gives to female artists in thisgenre and it is on this particular aspectthat I wish to make a few observations.One is especially struck by the strongemotions that taarab music, and par-ticularly women’s participation in itsperformance, provokes in some mem-bers of the community keen on preserv-ing some kind of crude “traditional-ism,” that is, an appeal “to rules andcustoms—even when they have beendrained of their meaning and contentby time and changed circumstances—simply because this is the way thingshave always been done” (Ngugi waThiong’o 1994, 7). At least this is thetenor of Sheikh Nabhany’s, a renownedSwahili scholar, observation that “it isagainst Swahili culture or tradition, itis against the teachings of Islam.”

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That the presence of women goesagainst what is considered religiouslypermissible or culturally appropriatespeaks to the way in which art canfunction as a formal instrument of cul-tural invention and re-invention in tan-dem with new socio-cultural and eco-nomic realities. Furthermore, Swahilipoetry tends to be conceived of as anexclusively male genre although his-torical evidence shows otherwise. Forhow does one account for the poetryof Mwana Kupona Binti Mshamu ofPate appearing as early as the later halfof the 19 th century (see Jahadhamy1994)?1 While the exclusion of womenis not something totally peculiar toSwahili society, part of the problem lieswith critics and researchers who do notpay enough attention to women artists,a problem the editors of the 1994 spe-cial issue of Research in African Litera-tures, the foremost journal in Africanliterary criticism, illustrate so well.Thus observe Molara Ogundipe-Leslieand Carole Boyce Davies: “[T]he exclu-sion of women from theory and re-search is often responsible for [this] ‘ap-parent predominance’ of males as ar-tistic producers” (1994, 1) which in turnresults in the tendency to “iconize thetraditional artists as the town crier, themale drummer and other male arche-types” (Ogundipe-Leslie and Davies1994, 1). Given the “conceptual blindspot that has allowed the constructionof field of African oral literature to de-velop without major consideration ofthe women as oral artists” (2),Ntarangwi’s work finds its placeamong recent works that have taken itas their mission to correct this concep-

tual blind spot, such as AissataSidikou’s Recreating Words, ReshapingWorlds: Verbal Art of Women from Niger,Mali and Senegal (2001), Thomas Hale’sGriots and Griottes: Masters of Words andMusic (1998), among others.

But what exactly do Davies andOgundipe-Leslie mean by “traditional”artist? One is left with a feeling thatthere is an uncritical assumption thatthe traditional artist is a reference tocreator of oraliture whose activitiesbelong to a past. For how do we explaintheir use of this term, knowing full wellthat these art forms continue to thrivein our societies, and that the oral wordstill remains a principal means of so-cial and political discourse in our con-temporary African cultures (Njogu2001)? This then is part of the problemthat Ntarangwi poses with reference tothe taraab genre, the dichotomy that ex-ists between “culture as stated and cul-ture as practiced,” an ethnographicobservation which invites a comment,especially if we agree with ChristopherMiller that “gender is not merely asupplementary issue that can be‘added on’ to a critical approach, likethe caboose on a train; gender as an is-sue and feminist criticism in particularinvites a reappraisal of literature andculture from the ground up” (1990,246).

Ntarangwi correctly postulates thattaarab plays an important role as a fo-rum for self-articulation. I take self-ar-ticulation to mean among other things,a way of inserting oneself into the so-cial discourse that determines what canbe known about that person as an in-dividual and as a member of a social


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constituency. Art forms such as taarabtherefore become important tools forshaping contemporary Swahili culture;a function not only inherent in the flu-idity of the performance context butalso arising out of the flexibility of themeanings and interpretations thatpeople extract from these songs. Thus,taarab functions as a critique of socialconfigurations that impact on the waypeople live, that is, how they performsocially sanctioned roles while simul-taneously offering an avenue throughwhich certain gender norms are chal-lenged and reconfigured especially inperformance. The very appearance ofwomen in public to sing and performis therefore more than just an “achieve-ment.” It is an act of violation and ofagency; violation of a space that is con-sidered a preserve of male artists andconcurrently an act of women artistsinserting themselves into the discourseabout the social construction of femi-ninity. But Helen Mugambi has re-cently reminded us of the ambiguityinvolved in women’s attempt to gainvoice in the context of performance.She correctly argues that, although “theterm ‘song’ simultaneously evokesvoice, story, storyteller, performance, aswell as images of musical instruments”(62), this alone does not in any wayminimize the control that men exertover women in the context of perfor-mance because they control thewomen’s dancing by virtue of havingcontrol of the musical instrumentswhich in turn control the dance. More-over, the text of the song is itself asimportant, if not more important thanthe act of performance.

I wish to pursue this issue a little bitfurther by way of problematizing thequestion of agency with specific refer-ence to two excerpts of songs by thefemale artist Zuhura. As a point of de-parture, let us start with what CornelWest calls the existential challenge:“how does one acquire the resourcesto survive and the cultural capital tothrive as a critic or artist? By culturalcapital (Bourdieu’s term), I mean notonly the high quality skills required toengage in critical practices, but moreimportant, the self-confidence, disci-pline, and perseverance necessary forsuccess without undue reliance on themainstream for approval and accep-tance” (1993, 214). In other words, pub-lic performance for these women isonly part of the problem. How does themessage encoded in their songs chal-lenge or reinforce normative gendereven as it seeks to contest it? There isno better example than two excerptsfrom Zuhura’s songs:

You are cutting off your ear lobeswhat have they done to you?You want youth and it’s not possibleYou are cheating yourself Hassan’smother

Your days are over yet you don’tseem to realizeYou force yourself to be youngBut you can’t bring back your past

* * *Many girls of great worth can’t getpartnersForcing them to mess themselves upWhy can’t you accept you are old?

From these two excerpts, it seems to

Mwenda Ntarangwi

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me that Zuhura’s ridicule of a womanwho seeks to beautify herself pandersinto the absolutization of the socially-sanctioned values as they pertain towomen and into the conflation of wom-anhood with motherhood. Does age,for instance, write off whatever awoman should or should not do withher own body?

Ntarangwi’s essay also raises sev-eral problematic issues unrelated togender and I wish to comment on onlyone. Ntarangwi’s essay revisits, with-out giving any new direction to the de-bate, the long-standing contested ques-tion of the identity of Swahili people.Ntarangwi observes: “The Swahili arean African people of mixed descent liv-ing along the East African coast as wellas in the interior.” I am quite preparedto be persuaded to see the issue other-wise if there is carefully analyzed andjudiciously contextualized evidence tosupport any of these competing claimsabout Swahili identity. So contestatoryare the various theories of Swahili ori-gin that as recently as 1994, two emi-nent scholars of Swahili descent, AliMazrui and his cousin, Al AminMazrui, have correctly observed:

The problem of identity and thequest for origins in the particularmanner applied to the Swahili caseis not a very usual scholarly engage-ment compared to the way it oc-curred with other African nationali-ties (17).

Nowhere is this controversy muchmore heightened than in the Mazruis’sclaim that the East African coast may,after all, have been part of the “Red Sea

civilization” that only later metamor-phosed into a separate social organism.Of course, to Ali Mazrui’s detractors,this is part of his Islamo-centric viewof African historiography. Neverthe-less, it is an issue that Ntarangwi’s es-say needs to refer to if not attempt tooffer a different perspective or explainwhy he agrees with one particular ex-planation. To be sure, Ntarangwi, likethe Mazruis, is revisiting a controversythat was sparked by earlier ethno-graphic studies by Dutch-Flemishscholars about Swahili language, soci-ety, and culture, which has since beenthe subject of very animated scholar-ship in the last two decades. By revisit-ing this issue in his paper, Ntarangwi’smethod invites a comment on the sidewith which he aligns himself in thisdebate. It is precisely for this reasonthat it is important, given the nature ofthe audience for his paper (and I amconvinced it is a widely western audi-ence—I could easily be argued out ofthis if accessibility to the internet werenot an issue in East Africa). As recentlyas January of 2000, I attended a confer-ence called “African Languages andLiteratures into the 21st Century” inAsmara, Eritrea, where the issue of thestatus of Swahili, as a foreign language,a language of “slave masters,” becomesuch a thorny issue that the panelended in disarray. The combatants?Mainly respected African(ist) and Af-rican-American scholars. And it is pre-cisely for this reason that a commenton the origins of Waswahili must alwaysbe accompanied by at least a footnotethat explains how one is entering intothis debate.


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Notes

1 Mwana Kupona died around 1860 andwrote this poem on her death-bed as a willto her daughter on how to survive in a feu-dal society.

Works Cited

Hale, Thomas A. 1998. Griots andGriottes: Masters of Words andMusic . Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press.

Jahadhamy, Ali A. 1994. Kusanyikoa laMashairi. Nairobi: Heinemann.

Mazrui Ali and Al Amin Mazrui. 1995.Swahili State and Society: ThePolitical Economy of an AfricanLanguage. Nairobi: East AfricanEducational Publishers.

Miller, Christopher. 1990. Theories ofAfrican: Francophone Literatureand Anthropology in Africa. Chi-cago: University of ChicagoPress.

Mugambi, Helen Nabasuta. 1994. Inter-sections: Gender, Orality, Text,and Female Space in Contem-

porary Kiganda Radio Songs.Research in African Literatures 25(3):47-70.

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. 1994. Foreword.Tell it to Women: An Epic Dramafor Women. Osonye TessOnwueme. Detroit: Wayne StateUniversity Press.

Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara and CaroleBoyce Davies. 1994. Special Is-sue: Women as Oral Artists.Research in African Literatures 25(3)

Njogu, Kimani. 2001. Kimondo, Satireand Political Dialogue: Elec-tioneering Through Versifica-tion. Research in African Litera-tures 32(1):1-13.

Sidikou, Aissata. 2001. RecreatingWords, Reshaping Worlds: VerbalArt of Women from Niger, Maliand Senegal. Trenton, NJ: AfricaWorld Press.

West, Cornel. 1993. The New CulturalPolitics of Difference. In TheCultural Studies Reader. Editedby Simon During. New York:Routledge.

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