Return to search

Continuitiy and change in Zanzibari Taarab performance and poetry

Taarab in contemporary Zanzibar currently experiences great changes since the Nineties with the emerging and growing success of modern taarab. This has shocked the fans of the traditional style (taarab asilia) with musical and instrumental innovations, including powerful amplifiers and more danceable rhythms, but also textual innovations, using in their songs, commonly called mipasho, a sort of language and poetical imagery very open and non-disguised (Khamis 2002: 200). The perception of a split between the two musical and poetical styles is widely shared among the artists and fans of traditional taarab, but it actually tends to simplify the dynamics of continuity and change of this art deeply rooted within the social and political life of Zanzibar islands.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:11490
Date January 2004
CreatorsAiello Traoré, Flavia
ContributorsUniversity of Calabria, Universität Mainz
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typedoc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text
SourceSwahili Forum 11 (2004) S. 75-81
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Relationurn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-91576, qucosa:11539

Page generated in 0.0023 seconds