With a characteristic and gifted voice, Siti binti Saad rose to a position of national pride as the songstress of her day. She was the first East African woman to have her voice recorded on discs for the purpose of entertaining and promoting the Swahili language and creating a commercial enterprise out of those records.

Those memorable love songs are still in the hearts of many admires who pass them on to the next generation. Siti, as she was commonly known, sang in Swahili. She sang at the palace, wedding parties and other public functions.

Siti could also sing in Arabic and Hindustani. When the monsoon dhows from Kuwait, Iraq, Oman and Southern Arabia visited here in those days she used to be fully booked with singing appointments to entertain the captains and crews of the dhows.

One nahodha (Captain) from the Persian Gulf known as Abdul-Wahab, who was a millionaire, used to invite Siti with her orchestra to sing every evening at his luxurious dhow. The platform of this dhow was clad with such beautiful carpets that one would hesitate to place one’s foot on them. This dhow looked like a royal yacht. Abdul-Wahab led many other dhows which carried dates, dried fruits and other merchandise but his own dhow carried only carpets.

When I started knowing Siti bint Saad in 1928 she was already on her ladder to stardom but she really reached the apex of her position when in 1928 she signed a contract with his Master’s Voice recording company to go to Bombay, India where with her colleagues she recorded a lot of Swahili songs.

Her companions, who played music and also sang, included the late Subeit (Bash) Ambar, others like Buda Suwedi, a violinist of great fame, and Maalim Shaaban as singer. Siti died in 1950 still retaining her fame at the age of 70. In Swahili there is a saying that she died like a guinea fowl without losing her colours: "Kafa na urembowe kama kanga."

Much credit is to be paid to one Abdulkarim Hakim Khan who was His Master’s Voice agent in Zanzibar. I am told that he was here before the First Great War and as well known person. He had an interest in music and he guessed that he would be able to sell his gramophone machines as well as the discs if recordings were in Swahili. He guessed right, and this greatly enhanced the reputation of His Master’s Voice company as the first institution which recorded songs in Swahili.

In these early days of Swahili records the coffee shops and eating houses were flooded with members of the public listening to the songs of Siti binti Saad. Member of the public who played them inside their houses were astonished to hear encores from listeners outside their houses. The people were proud and pleased with this new invention in their national language.

The records found their way to many Swahili speaking areas like Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya, and also sold in Congo (Kinshasa), Comoros, Somalia and Southern Arabia; a fine example of Swahili leadership. This typified Zanzibar, they dance in the lakes".

The prices of these records from Rupee 3 (Shs 4/50) to Rs. 5 (Shs 7/50). Their popularity and public demand decided the price. Most of these records cannot be found now in Zanzibar as the past administration did not take care to preserve them as national monuments. However, I believe, Radio Mogadishu and Radio Comoros have some records of Siti and her colleagues which are put on the air from time to time.

Siti binti Saad was born at Kisauni six miles from Zanzibar town on the Airport Road now known as Nyerere Road. She lived in the village but way very found of singing to her girl friends at home and in the field. She came into contact with one Musa Bulushi who was a musician and she had an opportunity to learn how to follow string music when it was played. Musa persuaded her to come to town as there might be a chance both to earn a reputation and money as a professional singing star.

She followed this advice and moved to town and for many years lived at Vikokotoni. This house is now occupied by her daughter who once showed some interest in singing but  dropped it suddenly.

Siti binti Saad was illiterate both in Arabic and Roman scripts but she possessed a wonderfully retentive mind and her power of grasping things and mastering them was unimaginable. She could sing in Arabic with perfect intonation and the same in Hindustani. You read any song to her for a time and she would repeat it correctly. During her sty in India she had the chance to attend many concerts and this opened up another special professional field for her. She was a good dramatist combined with the gift of taking a leading role in acting. Such were the accomplishments of this wonderful lay- Siti bint Saad.

When His Master’s Voice company realized the business was profitable they brought their own recording studio to Zanzibar and housed it at the building now used as Gulioni School. The Columbia recording company whose agent was Gokaldas S. Rughani also started their own recording studio. In her group, Mbaruk Effandi, the blind violinist who was also a good actor especially in cracking jokes, was included. He could also sing.

One woman who was a rival of Siti composed a song which she thought would tarnish her reputation:-

• Siti bint Saad kawa mtu lini
• Kaja mjini na kaniki chini
• Kama si sauti angekula nini

The song interprets that Sitti came to town in rags and without her voice she would have starved. Binti Saad was a professional singing star no doubt and she lived by her profession.  The woman got a rejoinder from Siti which silenced her when she replied that the other was worse than a street girl and she had no respectable profession to earn her a living. Siti was very witty and a pleasant conversationalist and although it is true Siti was not beautiful neither was she very ugly.  One lady known as Sitti Peponi came from Mombasa to rival binti Saad.  She was taken here and there as the people felt they might get a good change in place of Siti.  But she quickly dropped out of the public mind and went back to Mombasa.