{"id":19402,"date":"2021-10-04T07:04:34","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T05:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/?post_type=focus&p=19402"},"modified":"2021-10-04T07:04:34","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T05:04:34","slug":"more-female-musicians-breaking-barriers-in-zanzibari-music","status":"publish","type":"focus","link":"https:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/en\/focus\/more-female-musicians-breaking-barriers-in-zanzibari-music\/","title":{"rendered":"More female musicians breaking barriers in Zanzibari music"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the music profession in Zanzibar tilts the balance towards men, more and more women have been breaking barriers and injecting their talent into the perceived sound of the Indian Ocean archipelago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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One of the earliest examples of a female musician who broke away from the constraints placed on women in Zanzibari music was the late Siti binti Saad (1880-1950), who established taarab music <\/a>as a performing art and a voice for women in East Africa. Before her, the genre was performed by educated men who sang in Arabic \u2013 the language of Zanzibar\u2019s small elite. Siti binti Saad, who had no formal education, was the genre\u2019s first well-known female singer and popularised taarab by using Swahili. She later became the first East African woman to release music commercially after the UK<\/span>\u2019s Gramophone Company took her to Bombay, India, to record.<\/p>\n