Nairobi — Bi Kidude needs no introduction to the people of the East African coast, from Lamu in Kenya to Lindi in Tanzania and beyond. This is a region where taarab music is a popular part of Swahili culture.

Taarab has now transcended cultural and geographical boundaries to find fans as far away as Burundi, Rwanda, South Africa and Europe.

Now Ally Saleh, Fiona McGain and Kawathar Buwahyid have teamed up to write the biography of Fatma bint Baraka, popularly known as Bi Kidude.

It's not for Bi Kidude's excellence at taarab that the authors decided to write her story. There are many icons in Zanzibar who would have fitted the bill.

There is the legendary Bakari Abeid, whose song Mazoea yana tabu is a big hit, more than 40 years after it was composed.

There is, also, Mohamed Maulid, affectionately known as Machaprala by his fans.

He introduced into taarab a style of singing and chorus never tried before.

And, of course, there is Mohamed Ilyas, who reminds his fans of the late Mohamed Abdulwahab, the famous Egyptian singer and actor of 1950s.

Instead, they must have chosen Bi Kidude because she was a rebel. One has only to listen to her many interviews on local TV and radio stations to appreciate her character. She does not shy away from cheeky or hostile interviewers, repaying them in kind, upfront and smiling.

This side of the singer comes out brilliantly in stories from her troubled life, as a girl growing up in the male-dominated Sultanate of Zanzibar in the 1920s.

In this predominantly Muslim society, where elderly people are expected to live their last days in pious seclusion, the 80-year-old Bi Kidude wears make-up, enjoys a drink once in a while and still mounts the stage in packed concert halls in Zanzibar and abroad -- London, Johannesburg and Hamburg.

She sings her heart out, backed by a full orchestra. On stage, under the lights, she resembles jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.

This book is an encyclopedia of the life and culture of Zanzibar people. The cover shows a smiling Bi Kidude, as if telling her critics to paint her as she is without missing a wrinkle on her face.

Through Bi Kidude's life, the reader meets the makers of Zanzibar's modern history: Sultan Sayyid Khalifa bin Harub Al-Busaid, Sheikh Yahya Ramia of Bagamoyo (the Khalifa of Tarika Quadiriyya) father of the patriot and nationalist politician Sheikh Mohamed Ramia, Abeid Amani Karume, Wolfang Dourado, who was once Zanzibar's Attorney General, Tharia Topan, an Asian businessman, and Julius Nyerere. Bi Kidude tells her story with passion, innocence and humility, taking the reader into the inner chambers of a Zanzibari society that remains a mystery to many people.

Politicians pushing their own agenda portray Zanzibar under the sultans as a society dominated by hatred between the so-called Arabs and Africans because of the residue of slavery. We are made to believe that life on the isles was similar to that in America during slavery. Bi Kidude is oblivious to all this.

"My sister and I lived with the Arab lady who also raised my mother, Awena binti Nassor Lemki." The reader gets the impression of a mingling of foreign cultural influences and local traditions, of calm co-existence and even love between people of different backgrounds.

Bi Kidude, black as she is, states that she has family connection with Al Kharusi, once one of the prominent Arab families in Zanzibar, and proudly says one of the princes -- Seyyid Soud -- was her uncle.

More than 40 years after the revolution, Bi Kidude -- known for her sharp tongue, wit and outspokenness -- talks about her Arab relatives with melancholy and fondness.

Bi Kidude went to a madrasa as a girl and till today cannot read the Roman script.

She emphasises that memorisation of long chapters from the Koran sharpened her power of retention.

When she began her career as a singer, she did not have to read the lyrics, she only had to listen to them once and the words would stick in her mind.

The book moves with ease from one epoch to the other, introducing readers to the "Zanzibar enlightenment" when young people were first exposed to Western dance, music, and cinema for entertainment. Indian movies, in particular, became popular.

It is a pity that while Bi Kidude has been such an extrovert throughout her life and career, the book about her came into the market rather quietly.

Reviewed by Mohamed Said