Like many little girls born in the 1940s, Zuhura Swaleh’s expected societal role was to be a wife and a mother, nothing more. It did not matter that she enjoyed reciting religious poems known as Qasida during her madrasa classes. It did not matter that from reciting these verses frequently, she had developed an interest in music and poetry and yearned to compose verses of her own. For this young girl growing up in Pumwani (Nairobi), there was only one path she was expected to take.
Zuhura’s future was set in motion when she was 15 years old. She was betrothed and wed off in an arranged marriage and after the ceremony, she moved to Lamu with her husband to begin a new chapter of her life. In this coastal town far from home, she found solace in Lamu’s musical culture. She enjoyed attending weddings that highlighted the traditional ngoma dances which were always accompanied with songs.
Zuhura’s marriage was not a happy one and was short-lived as a result. She moved back to Nairobi and started performing and recording with well-known musicians like David Amunga and Nashil Pichen. She even landed an acting role in the feature film “Mrembo”, performing alongside Fadhili William. While she enjoyed these creative pursuits, she was well aware she hadn’t quite found her niche yet.
It is not clear when, but Zuhura eventually remarried. Her husband, a Taarab singer named Abubakar Mohamed, seemed the ideal partner to do life and music with at the time. Together they travelled all over the country to perform at weddings. When her marriage to Abubakar ended in 1971, Zuhura relocated back to the hub of taarab music: Mombasa.
Not long after, Zuhura formed her own group: Zuhura & Party. As she developed her group’s style, she sourced inspiration from the ngoma-dance music of Lamu and the prominent chakacha rhythms of Mombasa. Zuhura also honed her verbal skills because taarab’s distinctive features include intricate rhyming patterns and syllable counts. For this, she sought the help of poets Sheikh Ahmed Nabhany and Khuleita Muhashamy.
Zuhura & Party’s chakacha-style taarab sound became extremely popular in the 1970s, leading to invitations for performances all over Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It was not just the chakacha style that made her music popular, Zuhura used her music to address gender issues and lend a voice to discussions that women had been shut out of. Her work became especially popular in Dar es Salaam, and her music became the basis of a new music genre called mchiriku.
In 1981, while playing at a wedding in Nairobi, Zuhura & Party were approached by Polygram Studio to record an album – one of the only full-length taarab recordings of that time. The album, titled Singetema, was released that same year, and included songs such as Jino la Pembe, Chungu, and Hasira Zako.
A decade after the release of this album, Zuhura was invited to perform at the Heimatklänge Festival in Berlin together with a Kenyan coastal group known as Maulidi Musical Party. Her voice stole the show, and the success of her performance marked the beginning of her live international concerts. In 1995, she toured Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland and introduced this part of the world to taarab music.
From reciting qasida in madrasa to becoming a celebrated taarab musician, Zuhura Swaleh has truly come a long way. Her music remains of relevance to date as it reminds us of how far we have come, but how much farther we need to go to achieve gender equity.
Let taarab music carry you today through Zuhura Swaleh’s song “Mdudu“.
