Sauti za Busara Music Festival
Welcome to the friendliest festival on planet earth!’ Few who have sat in the Old Fort mingling with musicians during a Sauti za Busara (Sounds of Wisdom) festival can argue with
this superlative. February 2010 is approaching, and for the seventh year running, the islands of Zanzibar are gearing up to entertain and unite music lovers from across the world.
Yusuf Mahmoud, the man with the inside story, just grins and says this year’s musical
feast is richer and tastier than ever.
“Musicians like South African diva Thandiswa, Zanzibar’s Ikwani Safaa Musical Group and West African artistes Dawda Jobarteh and Malick Pathé Sow will take to the stage. The diversity of the acts means that there is something to suit all tastes; taarab rubs shoulders with
hiphop, as poetry flirts with ngoma… Our main Sauti za Busara
music festival A Musical fest in zanzibar By Frederica Boswell focus is to showcase the wealth and variety of East African music - upcoming and established groups; acoustic and electric; innovative and classic; from city and shamba.”
And so, from the 11th February, over 400 artists; thirty of the best groups from Zanzibar,
Tanzania and around East Africa, plus, another ten from Africa and the Diaspora, will grace the stage and perform in the spectacular venue that is Stone Town’s 300 year old fort.
A few years ago, the scale of today’s event seemed almost impossible for the organisers.
Yusuf Mahmoud is ecstatic that this dream is finally being realised. “It’s one of those very
rare occasions in Zanzibar where you see everybody all mixing together, happy and smiling
and laughing, regardless of politics or religion; all sitting together and getting on and you know, it’s rare and special for that kind of thing to happen on this island.”
Eric Wainaina, who performed at the first festival in 2004 when the focus was almost exclusively on East African artists, and then again in 2008, is pleased with the way the
festival has developed. “I think it’s important to spread your wings and expand the talent as
well for a more diverse audience. I like what Busara has been trying to do to give East
African music some prominence, because we love our West African brothers but they’ve
been getting a lot of the credit so far,” he jokes, and then ends, “It’s good that Busara is doing that, we all learn from each other and we have shared experiences to gain inspiration from. That’s important so I think it is good to have artists come from all over the world.”
It is not just the musicians who are inspired.
The crowd is also fully behind the way the festival has developed over the years. Mohammed, a keen music fan feels that it has become more advanced. “You see more groups performing and it’s getting better and better each year.” Another Zanzibari explained the acceptance of the festival in the island’s cultural diary: “these days, most people are more aware of the festival. Zanzibaris used to worry that it might spoil our culture, but now they are realising that the festival is actually improving and developing the culture of Swahili music.”
Another girl wearing a Kenyan flag on her chest told me, “you see different artists from different countries playing different kinds of music, and then you have a crowd from different parts of the world, different kinds of people with different appreciations of music, everyone is enjoying it so it gives you hope that music is actually one language. It’s a great feeling, and it’s Zanzibar. It’s beautiful!” Simai Mohammed Said sits on Busara’s Board of Trustees and is also the chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors. For him, the fact that this festival happens in Zanzibar is a huge selling point and last year noted positive tourist figures despite economic insecurity across the world. “For sure, there are a lot of tourists now in different parts of the world looking for something unique, something different, and something that they can take and cherish for the rest of their lives.
Sauti za Busara is one way, because when people arrive here, the unique culture and the
music brings a very exceptional scene where you have Arabs, Africans, Indians, alongside the
culture from Europe. What I like about this is that it is what Zanzibar is all about. We are not
stagnant. We are sharing our rich culture with other people and Zanzibaris are very hospitable
people, so this cultural tourism that is happening now in Zanzibar is definitely a way
forward, and people are beginning to fall in love with that.” And so, for a week in February, Zanzibar invites the world to be a part of this friendly festival. Admission is free to all East African residents before 5pm, and from Thursday 11th until Sunday 14th around ten groups perform live each day. Starting in the late afternoon as the sunshine softens and shadows slowly start to stretch out, the music will continue virtually non-stop into the evening when the final band takes to the stage around midnight.
For those who made it last year, few will ever forget Zanzibar’s legendary grandmother Bi Kidude sharing a microphone with beloved Congolese singer Samba Mapangala as the festival closed and some in the audience joined the band on stage. Many danced and made their plans to return in 2010; all agreeing that Sauti za Busara is truly special. |
Story By: Frederica Boswell |
