She was tiny, she smoked, she drummed and she sang with a voice that could fill a room. When Bi Kidude died in 2013, nobody knew exactly how old she was. Most estimates put her over 100.
Bi Kidude, born Fatuma binti Baraka, was the most famous singer of Zanzibar and a legend of taarab music.
Zanzibar
Bi Kidude was born in Zanzibar, probably around 1910, when the islands were a British protectorate under the sultanate. She grew up in a world shaped by Swahili, Arab, Indian and African cultures, all of which met in Zanzibar’s music.
Taarab
Taarab is a Swahili musical tradition that grew in Zanzibar and along the East African coast. It blends Arabic, Indian and African influences, with orchestras of strings, percussion and sometimes accordion, and poetic lyrics about love, society and politics.
The early taarab star Siti binti Saad, one of the first East African women to record, was a major influence on Bi Kidude.
Unyago
Bi Kidude was also a respected performer of unyago, rites and songs used in the initiation of young women into adulthood. She was known as a teacher and guardian of these traditions, and she drummed as well as sang.
Breaking rules
She was famous for doing things women of her background were not expected to do: smoking in public, drumming, travelling and living independently. She said she had run away from an unhappy marriage when young and followed her own path.
International fame
In the 1990s and 2000s, world music audiences discovered her. She toured Europe and performed at festivals, astonishing audiences who could not believe her age. In 2005, she received the WOMEX award for her lifetime achievement.
The documentary
Her life was the subject of documentaries, which captured her energy and humour and helped spread her fame beyond East Africa.
Last performances
She kept performing until the last year of her life. She died on 17 April 2013. Thousands attended her funeral in Zanzibar.
Her legacy
Younger Zanzibari and Tanzanian musicians have kept her songs alive, and she is remembered as a symbol of the island’s musical heritage and of women’s independence.
A voice from another century
Bi Kidude was born before the radio came to Zanzibar and lived to see her performances shared online. Few musicians have carried a tradition across so many years, and fewer still did it with a cigarette in one hand and a drum in the other.
