Join the taarab maestro, Mbarak Ali Haji, the founder, principal composer, keyboardist, and harmonium player of Lelele Africa, a prominent and authentic taarab music ensemble based in Mombasa, for this lecture/performance as he recounts the history of taarab music on the East African Coast.

Taarab music is the vibrant heartbeat of the Swahili Coast. Over the last century, it has evolved from an exclusive, royal Arabic-Egyptian court music into a massively popular, electrified East African dance genre, uniquely reflecting the region’s dynamic history of trade, migration, and cultural exchange.

The lecture will be in Kiswahili, with English translation.  It will be spiced up with live taarab music by Lelele Africa spanning the last ten decades.

Tunawakaribisha kusherehekea Siku ya Kiswahili Duniani ili tushiriki kwa historia ya Taarab katika Afrika Mashariki.