Fatuma binti Baraka (aka Bi.Kidude) ( - 17th April 2013) was a Zanzibari Taarab singer. She is considered the undisputed queen of Taarab and Unyago music and is also a protégé of Siti binti Saad
Bi Kidude was born in the village of Mfagimaringo, she was the daughter
of a coconut seller in colonial Zanzibar. Bi Kidude's exact date of
birth is unknown, much of her life story is uncorroborated, giving her
an almost mythical status.
In 2005 Bi Kidude received the prestigious WOMEX award for her outstanding contribution to music and culture in Zanzibar.
As a child, she was singled out for her fine voice and, in the 1920s,
sang locally with popular cultural troupes, combining an understanding
of music with an equally important initiation into traditional medicine.
At age 13, after a forced marriage she fled Zanzibar to mainland
Tanzania. Bi Kidude toured mainland East Africa with a taarab ensemble, visiting the major coastal towns and inland as far west as Lake Victoria and Tanganyika.
She walked the length and the breadth of the country barefoot in the
early 1930s fleeing another unhappy marriage. In the 1930s she ended up
in Dar es Salaam where she sang with Egyptian Taarab group for many
years. In the 1940s she returned to Zanzibar where she acquired a small
mud hut to be her home. She is known for her role in the Unyago
movement which prepares young Swahili women for their transition
through puberty. She is one of the experts of this ancient ritual,
performed only to teenage girls, which uses traditional rhythms to teach
women to pleasure their husbands, while lecturing against the dangers
of sexual abuse and oppression.
Her fame has been widely acknowledged throughout the local Zanzibari and
Zazibari tourism community, with the luxury hotel on the island, '236
Hurumzi', naming their restaurant 'Kidude' in her honour. She can often
be found residing within the lobby of this very special hotel in
Stonetown.
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