Love letters to God

A walk from the Old Fort through the dark, winding roads on the outskirts of Stone Town led us to a small, unassuming madrasa lit up like a lighthouse in the darkness. We’d arrived at Zizi la Ng’ombe, where men wearing white kanzu and kofia were quickly organising busati (mats) to accommodate the boys and men who would be kneeling for the Maulidi ya Homu performance.

This year, Sauti za Busara festival goers received a unique invitation through Busara Xtra to experience an exclusive show of Maulidi ya Homu – a spellbinding form of dance and praise poetry rooted in Swahili Islamic tradition. ‘Maulidi’ refers to all the festivities related to the birth of the Prophet Mohammed, but this particular performance – “ya homu” – is a rare form that invokes the motion of a “steady wind”.

Leaving our shoes at the door, we entered a space buzzing with anticipation, guests lining up against the wall and then in rows to squeeze everyone inside the small room.

Far from the glitz and shine of a staged performance, this was a rare opportunity to experience Maulidi ya Homu ya Mtendeni where they often rehearse, in a learning space speckled with posters of the Arabic alphabet, children’s hygiene advice, and prayers. The audience faced two rows of men and boys, one kneeling in front and the other standing behind, with just a narrow space between us.

The room was struck silent by the utterance of what sounded like prayer, spoken as a song, belted out from a single voice. A chorus of voices responded in kind. A slow rhythm on drums triggered the gentle swaying of the dancers’ shoulders, their movements barely perceptible. Within minutes, intricate, rhythmic drumming patterns were introduced, and the dancers responded with mesmerising motion, flicking and snapping their wrists, roiling their hips, tilting their heads in a single direction and back, all the time swaying back and forth in unison, creating a sensation of ‘homu’.

Oudi (incense) was lit and started wafting through the room, weaving heady scents between and among the performers and audience.

Soon, we were all locked in a percussive trance, held captive by the poetic gestures performed through the collective body of the dancers in praise of Allah. As the drums’ intensity amplified, the dancers’ faces lit up, eyes wide, sometimes cringing or pinged with ecstasy. Sibilant sounds slithered through the song. Their choreographed gestures were like lines of poetic exaltation - becoming larger and more pronounced as the drums picked up speed. Repetitive percussive and choral through-lines were jolted by the occasional counter-choral shout.

At its climax, the dancers’ shoulders shuddered and their thighs quivered as they swooped down onto their backs and then rolled up again into undulating ocean-waves of sound. They were at once pounding their fists to the floor and then abruptly lifting themselves up, reaching their hands in unison up in the air, as if reaching for God’s love, receiving it, and placing it immediately back into the folds of the dance itself.

Maulidi ya Homu hypnotically weaves together drums, dance, and poetic chanting that merges Arabic and Swahili until both the performer and audience feel at once transported and incredibly alive, especially when punctuated by the joyous, elongated shouts of “Heebu!”, which may reference the idea of “kusoma ya hebu” – meaning to read the Koran by heart - or could also simply be an integrated breathing technique to punctuate their flow.

Once strictly a form of religious devotion, performers of Maulidi ya Homu insist that they are artists performing a centuries-old artform that is currently seeing a major revival in Zanzibar - due to an increased interest in cultural tourism and successful festivals like Sauti za Busara and the Zanzibar International Film Festival. Maulidi has been performed by women and girls as well in the past, but today the group is mostly comprised of boys and men. One of only three or four groups in the world performing this particular kind of Maulidi, the group has toured internationally to places like France and India to share their brilliance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj0Lm_UDUzk&feature=colike

Maulidi ya Homu ya Mtendeni creates an electric atmosphere that entrances its audience members, beckoning the soul of each back from the madness of daily life and into a spiritual state. In both the front and back row, performers move in sync with the others and yet each seem to have a spirit uniquely their own. The dancers in front are linked hand to elbow in a row for the entirety of the song, but no one facial expression or step is like the other. Part of the joy of watching the performance is following the uniqueness of each performer, from the youngest boy to the oldest man.

Maulidi songs feel like love letters to God, each drum beat and motion being a heart-searing line of praise and exaltation. The structure of the form itself allows for a slow build, frenzied climax, and gentle release back again into the mundane world of the everyday. A deeper understanding of Swahili and Arabic might lend insight into the poetic texts of ‘qasidas’ or ‘Islamic hymns’ and the nuanced meanings therein. Even without knowing the lyrics, however, Maulidi taps unabashedly into the Eros of spirituality, expressing through mind, body, and voice the power of a love larger than ourselves.

The Maulidi form is ancient but the feeling it leaves is timeless.  

If you would like to hear this incredibly gifted and generous performance ensemble, Maulidi ya Homu ya Mtendeni has just recorded its music for release through Buda Musique under the title The Moon Has Risen: A Sufi Performance from Zanzibar