You're listening to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me,

Reena Stanton Sharma.

I'm telling you the story of Bika Dooday, Zanzibar's most famous singer who burst onto the

international music scene when she was in her 70s.

Bika Dooday was one of the first women from the Tanzanian island to sing in public

without the veil, a bold move to make at that time in a traditional Muslim country.

Bika Dooday was in her 90s when that was recorded by the BBC in 2005, famous for breaking

taboos.

She was still performing, chain smoking and drinking.

Born Fatima Binti Baraka, she became known as Bika Dooday, which means little madame

in Swahili, and was fondly referred to as the golden grandmother of music.

Mariam Hamdani was one of her oldest friends and helped launch Bika Dooday's career globally

in the 1980s when the musician was in her 70s.

Mariam was working as a radio producer when she met the owner of a record company from London

who wanted to record music from Zanzibar.

So she organised a tour for the musicians to promote their work around the world.

I knew she's a stand, that is why I insisted that she should be in this group.

So from that day Bika Dooday was invited to France, to Japan, to Italy, or man, and then

when you're good everybody wants to.

She was so good that she was picking up new fans in every country she performed.

But Bika Dooday was almost robbed of going on tour because of perceptions about how older

women should behave.

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