Artists
who's who and who's doing what?BI KIDUDE
- country:Tanzania
- region:East Africa
- style(s):Traditional
- label:
- gender:female
- artist submitted by:
Bi Kidude is Zanzibar's most famous cultural ambassador and East Africa's legendary barefoot diva of taarab and unyago traditional music.
Bi Kidude's exact date of birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her an almost mythical status. Kidude 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, Africa, Middle East and Japan and finally recorded her first solo album ('Zanzibar', Retroafric) only seven years ago, while in her mid-eighties.
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.
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.
Bi Kidude's is a remarkable story, one that 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 ever 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.
In October 2005, Bi Kidude was presented with the World Music Expo (WOMEX) lifetime achievement award. Banning Eyre delivered a moving tribute, in which he informed delegates that "the singer, well in her nineties yet still sporting a bone-crushing handshake, received the honours in recognition of her more than 80 years of singing and serving as a cultural mediator and advisor of the younger generations, including on matters of sex and marriage - a proper symbol of World Music's emancipatory, liberating and strengthening power."
Recordings:
'Zanzibar' (Retroafric), 'Machozi ya Huba' (Heartbeat), Zanzibara 4 (Buda)
more info busara@zanlink.com.
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