The Comoros is an archipelago near Africa’s east coast, in the Indian Ocean. There are two main musical genres found in the island: twarab and Comorian traditional music.
Twarab (known as taarab in Zanzibar) is deeply influenced by the music of Zanzibar. Leading twarab artists include Sambeco (founded by Ahamada Mohamed), Belle Lumière, Chamsia Sagaf and Mohammed Hassan.
Comorian songs and dances are accompanied by the local ngoma drums.
Western instruments like the Spanish guitar arrived with French colonists.
Comorian musical instruments include gabusi (lute), ndzendze (box zither), the msondo drumand the ndzumara. The Arabic ud and violin are used in twarab music.
Comorian Musicians
