Utenzi or utend̠i is a form of poetic-musical narrations in Swahili language. It is a ‘mimesis’ of Arabic historical texts (of holy battles and encounters in Islamic history of Arabia) into a local genre, meant to perform in religious ritual life-cycle events. As a ‘sensual’ Malabari, I have stuck by the similarity of it to the Padapattu sub-genre of Mappila Songs -historically, aesthetically, linguistically and sonically.
Later, these aforesaid genres have adapted and musicalized everyday encounters in Mappila or Swahili Muslims political and social ethnic life. Recently, other than war songs these genres/ communities have keenly addressed the developments like CAA-NRC (in Indian case) and Corona problems through NRC-Pattus and Corona-Pattus.
Semantically, both of the songs make a general awareness of Corona outbreak along with its religious outlook, finding idiosyncratic causes, giving an ideology to counter, and finally seeking the ultimate refuge in God.
Here I share two Corona songs from the Indian Ocean soundscapes of Malabar and Zanzibar Coasts.
