July 7 has so much significance for Swahili and Swahili speakers. Besides the Saba Saba civil disobedience proposed by the opposition, the name itself is a Swahili phrase to mean the seventh day of ...

At a time when cultural musical styles have rapidly evolved, an East African genre that is nearly a century old is struggling to retain its identity. Contemporary influences have had a huge impact on ...

Mombasa, Kenya: The king of Taarab music, Mohamed Khamis Juma Balo, is dead. He died in his house in Mombasa’s Old Town on Saturday night after ailing for long. Bhalo who practised Taarab for over ...

When a genre of music that has changed very little of its original format over a period of almost a century begins to embrace contemporary influences, then its traditional fanbase is often stunned by ...