The Queen Of Pashtun Folklore
Music cannot be expressed in words, not because it is more vague than words but because it is more precise. It is an international language and the shared legacy of humanity.
That is why when Zar Sanga, the queen of gypsy, sang out ‘Rasha mama zwi de lewani de’ ( O dear uncle! My fascinating beauty has driven your son insane) at a musical evening in Paris, a large number of people in the crowd, which did not even understand her language, were captured by the sweetness and originality of her voice.
Zar Sanga was discovered by Mustafa, a banjo player from Radio Pakistan Peshawar. Mustafa spotted her singing at home and was so mesmerised by her voice that he asked the girl’s father to allow her to sing on the radio.
She was brought by the late Rashid Ali Dehqan, the innovative producer, to the radio station.
“Dehqan asked me for an audition, but when he listened to my voice without a mike he was very impressed and told me that I needed no audition, and so I started singing on the radio without knowing that I was a singer”, Zar Sanga once said.
She says that, when she sung in the old radio studio adjacent to the central prison in Peshawar, the prisoners would step on the prison’s walls to listen to her sing, so sharp and penetrating was her voice.
“My real name is “Zalobai”, but Dehqan changed it and started calling me Zar Sanga, because one of my neighbours, Gul Sanga, also used to sing on Radio”, she explains.
She was born in 1946 at Zafar Mamakhel, a small village of Lakki Marwat. She belongs to a nomadic tribe that used to settle in Afghanistan in summer and stay in Lakki during the winter.
In 1965, she married Mulajan, a resident of Sarai Naurang (Bannu) who was also a nomad.
Many people believe she is married to popular folk singer Khan Tehsil, but she denies the rumours: “Actually I sang with him on many occasions and most of our joint songs got immense popularity. He is not my husband he is just like my own brother”.
Zar Sanga has four daughters and two sons. Only Shehzada, her second son, stepped into the world of music.
At the start of her career, Zar Sanga would listen to the songs of Gulnar Begum, Kishwar Sultan, Bacha Zarin Jan, Khial Mohammad, Ahmad Khan and Sabz Ali Ustad.
“I liked all of them, but I have maintained my own traditional way of folk singing. The people would earnestly enjoy my songs on both sides of the Durand Line (Pakistan-Afghan border).
“I got no education so I cannot sing from a written paper. Most often I sing the songs that are composed and created by the common folk. However my husband also wrote some of my popular songs”, she said.
A French researcher, Miss Kia, who worked with Radio France, once said Zar Sanga’s voice was the only mountainous voice in the Pashto language.
Miss Kia took Zar Sanga to France for a musical concert. In France, many people were fascinated by her sweet melodies.
The Pashto singer described a concert in London: “I was singing a traditional folk song in Pashto about the mountains and gypsy life of the tribals and when I finished it, a British person came close to me and proudly remarked that he was also a gypsy.”
The famous numbers of Zar Sanga, which she never misses at any musical event she plays are Da Bangriwal Pa Choli Ma Za (her first-ever song on radio), Zma Da Khro Jamo Yara, Rasha Mama Zwi De, Zma Da Ghrono Pana Yara, and Kht Me Zanzeri De.
Zar Sanga has been to Germany, Belgium, Iraq, Dubai, America, France and UK and has enthralled thousands of Pakhtuns and local people with her voice.
In recognition of her unforgettable services to Pashto music, the government of Pakistan honoured her with a musical achievement award.
She is also a recipient of numerous awards and certificates from a number of cultural organisations.
When asked why she never stayed permanently in the developed countries she visited, she said Pakistan was her native land and that she would live and die there.
“Pakistan is my identity and I will never lose it at any cost”, she proudly remarked.
Shaheen Buneri is a Peshawar based TV and online journalist and Sher Alam Shinwari is a researcher and literary critic.
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