Bi Kidude--a living legend.

At over ninety years old, Kidude is still the undisputed queen of taarab and unyago traditional music. You might wonder what keeps this legendary barefoot diva so strong and active, but as she says of herself "Everytime I sing I feel like a 14-year old girl!"

A world performer

Bi Kidude's exact date of birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her an almost mythical status. She started out her musical career in the 1920s, and learnt many of her songs with Siti bint Saad. She has performed in countries all around Europe, Middle East and Japan and finally recorded her first solo album Zanzibar (Retroafric Recordings) only six years ago, while in her mid-eighties. Recently she released a second locally-produced album Machozi ya Huba (Heartbeat Records) with her traditional drums influencing the burgeoning Zenji Flava local hip-hop scene in one of the most remarkable juxtapositions of musical style in modern World Music.

An independent woman artist

Since fleeing a forced marriage at the age of 13 and escaping her homeland of Zanzibar, Bi Kidude has led an extraordinary and varied career as a drummer, singer, henna artist, and natural healer. Her first journey was to the mainland of Tanzania, where she walked the length and breadth of the country barefoot. Fleeing a second unhappy marriage, Bi Kidude boarded a dhow, the ancient sailing vessels of the Swahili coast, and journeyed north to Egypt where she became a renowned singer in the foremost dance bands of 1930's Egypt.

With renewed confidence and a new attitude to tradition (by now Kidude had thrown off her veil and shaved her head!) she returned, slowly to Zanzibar where she acquired a small clay house in the 1940's and settled down to life grounded in the traditional roots of society. Her role was as part of the Unyago movement, which prepares young Swahili women for their transition through puberty, and she excelled at the art of henna designing for young brides, manufacturing her own wanja application from age old recipes fit 'to make a rainbow shine'.

A living legend 

To this day, Bi Kidude performs traditional unyago music and is still the island's leading exponent of this ancient dance ritual, performed exclusively for teenage girls, which uses traditional rhythms to teach women to pleasure their husbands, while lecturing against the dangers of sexual abuse and oppression.

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Her many talents were acknowledged by Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) at the second Festival of the Dhow Countries in 1999, when she was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to the Arts.

Bi Kidude's is a remarkable story, one which challenges our perception of age, and of the role of women in Islam. She has never conformed to the media stereotype of a Muslim woman since she removed her veil. To see a ninety-something year old Muslim woman drink, smoke, flirt, dance and drum is a unique experience. To witness the transformation as she reverses the ageing process and changes from a wrinkled granny into a vital shining star is nothing short of revelationary.

During the past months Bi Kidude has been setting the festivals and concert venues of Europe ablaze, where she has been receiving rapturous reviews of her performances with Zanzibar's illustrious Culture Musical Club taarab orchestra. With her humble manner, incredible stage personality, voice and strength, Bi Kidude is favourite with audiences wherever the group performs.

The feature documentary As Old As My Tongue: The Myth & Life of Bi Kidude will see its world premiere at the next Sauti za Busara (Sounds of Wisdom) Music Festival in Zanzibar in February 2007, which will surely bring inspiration for women of all ages--worldwide!

Adapted from a text by Busara Promotions