塔拉布是东非沿海地区多元文化交融和社会变迁形塑出的一种音乐形式。它起初是桑给巴尔苏丹国的宫廷音乐，后演变成东非沿海地区流行音乐。两位不同代际女性音乐人在其中起到关键作用，即“塔拉布之母”西蒂和“塔拉布之后”吉杜黛。塔拉布以这两位关键人物及其所处时代语境为核心，在本土化发展过程中，呈现形式和内涵的存与续。西蒂在时代语境下赋予了塔拉布“生存”与“抗争”的思想内涵；而吉杜黛则与政府“合作”、与女子乐团合作，继承和创新西蒂的塔拉布，在谋求发展的同时，又保持“自我”。作为身处穆斯林社会的女性音乐人，西蒂和吉杜黛的个体特质对研究桑给巴尔塔拉布社会史具有重要价值和意义。
Taarab is a music genre shaped by multi-cultural communication and social changes on the coastal region of East Africa. It was originally regarded as court music in the Sultanate of Zanzibar，and later evoloved into popular music on the East African coast. During this process，two female musicians from different generations，Siti Binti Saad，known as “The Mother of Taarab” and Kidude Binti Baraka，known as “The Queen of Taarab”，played a vital role in the development of Taarab. With the specific social contexts concomitant with their musical endeavors，Taarab accomplished its localization in Zanzibar and manifested its legacy and innovation in terms of form and content. Arguably，Siti endowed Taarab music with connotation of survival and resistance，later on this basis，Kidude cooperated with Tanzanian government as well as a female orchestra to inherit and innovate traditional Taarab，which contributed to the development of Taarab and maintained the subjectivity of female musicians in a Muslim society. We argue that the study of Siti and Kidude especially their individual features，is of great value to the socio-historical study of Taarab music in Zanzibar.
