Along the East African coastal strip, few musical styles can rival the popularity enjoyed by taarab melodies, a genre believed to date back to late 19th century. Among the Swahili communities, live ...

Teenager Neema Florence Surrie started to play the violin at the age of nine. Since then, she has found a love for traditional taarab music and plays in an all-female taarab music group in Zanzibar.

Maryam Mohammed Hamdani says she is the first woman to play taarab, a traditional style of music native to East Africa, in public in Zanzibar. She says she wasn't able to learn as a child due to ...