This year´s Sauti Za Busara gave both students and teachers at DCMA the opportunity to share their music with a broader audience. Their music has been celebrated at the Old Fort as well as at the school during the Busara program. In addition, many workshops held at DCMA resulted in very productive exchanges of knowledge between musicians and others involved in the Arts.
The fusion group 'DCMA Young Stars' had the great privilege of Opening this year's music festival, and they did so with confidence even though it was the first time for some of the musicians in the group to perform in front of such a large crowd. Their performance was welcomed by the audience with great enthusiasm. Due to this year's election, the Busara management felt that it was especially important to promote peace and unity and each band was encouraged to write a song for peace with prizes given for the first 3 winners.
Back at DCMA, Swahili Encounters musicians gathered to gain inspiration from each other to put together a unique performance for the festival. Swahili Encounters is a joint collaboration between Busara and the DCMA and was supported for the second consecutive year by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. This year's performance was based on the theme 'Music Of The Islands', the Islands being Zanzibar, Comoros, Madagascar and La Reunion. The participants this year were a selection of DCMA artists together with performers such as Mim Suleiman from Zanzibar / UK, Ahamada Smis from Comoros / France and Attoumane Soubira from Comoro. Unfortunately the participants from la Reunion and Madagascar were unable to attend.
The musical fusions of Mgodro, Salege, Rap/Slam, Taarab, Chakacha, were performed on a medley of traditional instruments: gambus, ndze ndze, accordion, ukulele. traditional drums and percussion, ganun, oud along with electric bass and acoustic drums producing a combination of tastes of the islands with specific flavors infused from each individual performer. A dazzling and melodic performance which received a delighted and enthusiastic response from the crowd.
The group Mgodro performs a fusion of styles once famous in Zanzibar, Comoros, Madagascar, Mayotte and La Reunion. Inspired by artists from these islands: Matona trained young artists at DCMA to perform many musical styles of the islands: mgodro, chakacha, mchiriku, mduwara, mbiwi and deba and then formed the Mgodro group to perform a musical tradition once loved in Zanzibar and recently re-established at DCMA by The Artistic Director Mohamed Issa Haji - Matona. This year 'Mgodro' featured the fabulous singer from Mayotte Saandati Moussa. As well as paying homage to her talents as a great artist it is hoped that her performance with the group will act as a catalyst to attract more of the traditional artists from the islands to come and perform as honored guests with this up and coming and popular DCMA band.