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Khumariyaan, a popular music band, is set to embark on a three-week visit to East Africa to perform live in four cities with an objective to introduce different shades of music of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Quartet comprising young artists Farhan Borga, Sparlai, Rawail, Amer Shafiq and Shiraz would leave for East Africa in the second week of October for live performance in Nairobi, Mombasa, Diani and Arusha cities which would be followed by a workshop. The event would be sponsored by a private organisation, Creative Bhaag, based in Kenya.

Bogra, a rabab player and leader of the band, told this scribe that Khumariyaan would introduce different folk music shades of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the first time in East Africa. He said that they would also shed light on people, culture and folk music traditions of the province at the workshop.

“Rabab, sitar, guitar and zerbaghali would be introduced to African audience with a base tempo in native Pashto music while a workshop would be part of the event in which participants would be enlightened on history, culture and people of Pakistan and KP at large,” he said.

Bogra said that Khumariyaan would perform with African artists to encourage mutual music delicacies to advocate global peace, universalism and cultural diversity. “Performances will be arranged in prominent hotels, academies and universities besides beach resorts in four cities,” he added.

Earlier, Khumariyaan represented Pakistan in the US, UK, Europe and Gulf States. The band enjoys a large fans following overseas owing to its innovative style and unique way of expression.

Bogra said his music band focused on exploring universal symphonies through instrumental performance as it didn’t need any language but carried a heart-throbbing impact on the audience. In recent Dubai Expo, Khumariyaan garnered widespread appreciation from multifarious audience due to ensemble performance, he said.

He said that the invitation was extended to his music band by culture activist Seema Salim, the founder director of Creative Bhaag, who had assured them that their visit would be followed by series of exchange initiatives engaging other music bands to strengthen cultural ties.

“Our vision is to collaborate with artists and musicians, who share a collective vision of keeping our respective heritage and culture alive and also to elevate our folk music from medium of vocal based culture to instrumental fusion,” said Bogra.

Originally published in Dawn, October 3, 2022