Women in Taarab (review)

Exploring the role of women in taarab songs, Women in Taarab is another testament to the increasing intellectual interest in this hybrid genre of Swahili music. This incisive text examines the linguistic and stylistic features of the taarab songs in Zanzibar and focuses on the representation of women in these songs. Following Said A. M. Khamis, Mohamed El-Mohammady Rizk asserts that although taarab songs are written, they bear numerous elements of orature.

The text is divided into four chapters. The first chapter provides the theoretical framework that informs the study and explores the concept and history of taarab in Zanzibar. In this chapter, Rizk traces the history of taarab from its introduction in Zanzibar during the reign of Oman Sultan Seyyid Bargash (1870–1888). The book highlights taarab’s dynamism, exemplified by its gradual shift from exclusive palace entertainment to the popular realm, and in recent decades from music to be listened to only, to dance music. In chapter 2 the text dwells on the cultural milieu concomitant with taarab music and distinguishes taarab songs from other Swahili songs. In chapter 3, the book focuses on taarab as a performance art, and analyzes the linguistic aspects of taarab lyrics, their deployment of figures of speech, as well as the participation of women. Chapter 4 features the writer’s findings and conclusions.

It is Rizk’s analysis of the images of women in taarab that is particularly intriguing. He argues that the representation of women as flowers, angels, birds, pearls, stars, and other precious items not only underscores their femininity and beauty, but also dehumanizes them by portraying them as objects of male sexual desire. For example, in one song a woman is presented as nanasi (pineapple) ready to be devoured for ladha yake (literally, how she tastes, or her taste, but connoting sexual pleasure) that she can provide. Rizk claims that the incongruity between the plaudits in the lyric’s images and the underlining sexist connotations is predicated on the fact that there are fewer female composers. Further, he claims that even female composers replicate the same demeaning images of women, including the stereotypical temptress, submissive housewife, etc. (114).

This situation exemplifies one of the contradictions in the text, since for one, the idea of male domination and sexism in taarab that Rizk outlines runs counter to an earlier claim in the book that the women in Zanzibar are far less subject to phallocentric and phallocratic tendencies prevalent elsewhere in African (36). Also, Women in Taarab could have profited from rigorous editing, as there are a numerous typographical and grammatical errors. Moreover, the text suffers from some inaccurate or inept translations of Swahili words. For instance, the writer uses “cage” for tundu instead of “nest,” as the context dictates (100).

Despite such weaknesses, Women in Taarab offers insight into the centrality of women in taarab and is a valuable addition to the study of the rich Swahili culture, language, and literature.