Taking place next month in Stone Town, Zanzibar, the Sauti za Busara music festival has unveiled a line-up of African musicians who have been banned from performing their music in their own countries.
Musicians taking part in the upcoming event include singer Khaira Arby, nicknamed the ‘Nightingale of the North.’ Known for her powerful vocals, Arby incorporates the traditional and spiritual into her music, and has been widely praised for developing a bluesy homage to the prophet Mohammed. But after extremists imposed the law of Sharia upon the singer’s home country of Mali, all music except for Koranic verses has been banned, silencing all Malian musicians indefinitely.
Zimbabwean rapper and poet Comrade Fatso will also be performing at the event, after his music was banned from state radio and television for being too critical of the Mugabe government. Fatso hasn’t let this stop him, however, and has instead turned to unconventional methods to help spread his music.
‘We have our own guerrilla tactics of getting the word out into the townships,’ he said. ‘We have street teams of comrades who distribute hundreds of copies of the album into the kombis – public mini-buses used by ordinary Zimbabweans. So we create an alternative “people’s radio” as the album gets played in hundreds of kombis.’
Fatso has no qualms about provoking the attention of Mugabe’s secret police, either.
‘Our music is a rebellious, pro-freedom riot so if we didn’t attract their attention, we’d be doing something wrong,’ he said. ‘What we sing is truth and words are our weapon. If they want to lock us up for that, then so be it. We’re not scared and intimidation won’t stop us.’
The rapper is also known for his poetry, which he began to write while growing up in Zimbabwe. After undertaking a university course in the UK, he returned to his home country and created a new form of performance poetry which he calls toyi toyi poetry, a foot-stamping protest dance which was common during the apartheid era.
‘I always knew that I wanted to marry words with music and to create a new urban, African sound of struggle,’ he said. ‘Instead of music being used to turn African youth into passive consumers and obedient citizens, we need music that makes us move and dance against poverty and dictatorship. Chabvondoka means “it’s a riot” and that’s exactly what our music is.’
The 10th edition of the Sauti za Busara music festival is taking place from 14-17 February at the Old Fort in Zanzibar.
