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

At a time when cultural musical styles have rapidly evolved, an East African genre that is nearly a century old is struggling to retain its identity. Contemporary influences have had a huge impact on ...

August 7, 2020, was historic in the Taarab music circles. It marked the return of arguably one of its greatest sons, the self-styled King of Taarab - Mzee Yusuf, after a five-year hiatus. When he took ...

When Zanzibar-born Taarab icon Fatuma binti Baraka alias Bi Kidude passed on at a golden age of 102 in April 2013, all eyes were on the genre’s rising stars, emblems of the music’s future. Among them ...

Teenager Neema Florence Surrie started to play the violin at the age of nine. Since then, she has found a love for traditional taarab music and plays in an all-female taarab music group in Zanzibar.

The government has pledged support to the Five Stars Modern Taarab, after the group lost its 13 musicians in a tragic road accident that occurred in Morogoro Region last Monday. The Deputy Minister of ...

Zanzibar — MAULID Mohamed 'Machaprala,' former star of the Taarab music in Zanzibar, has died after long illness associated with diabetic complications. He was in his 70s. Machaprala passed away on ...