The Zawose Queens

From Bagamoyo, on the Tanzanian coast, The Zawose Queens brings together Pendo Zawose and Leah Zawose, two musicians from the family of singer and multi-instrumentalist Hukwe Zawose. The duo situates itself within the wagogo musical heritage while opening it to contemporary production, between polyphonies, percussion, discreet electronic textures, and illimba playing, in a writing that blends rural traditions with current stage formats. Pendo Zawose first performed with the family group in adolescence, before taking a central role after Hukwe Zawose's death in 2003; Leah Zawose, her niece, belongs to the next generation of this musical lineage. Their collaboration took shape after a performance at the Sauti za Busara festival, in Zanzibar, in 2019, the starting point of the project The Zawose Queens. Since then the group has developed a repertoire where singing, dance rhythms, and vocal exchanges occupy a central place, with an approach that does not separate the wagogo heritage from sonic experimentation. The Zawose Queens published their first album, Maisha, in 2024, on Real World Records, with the participation of the Wamwiduka Band, a northern Tanzania ensemble.