Tirsdagslyd: Somalia

I disse søte førjulstider kan det være greit med en liten påminner om at ikke hele verden er nedsunket i julefred og ribbefett. K'naan er en spennende stemme i så måte. Jeg har skrevet om ham før, men han fortjener en tirsdagslyd.

K'naan vokste opp i Mogadishu. Som trettenåring i 1991 flyktet han til Canada via USA sammen med mora si, og lærte seg engelsk blant annet ved å lytte til amerikanske rappere. Nå er han selv en populær artist, og bruker musikken sin til å gi verden et annet bilde av Somalia.

"The people of Somalia just do not have a voice," he says. "They are to me the most forgotten people in the world.

I Huffington Post fant jeg noe han opprinnelig har skrevet for italienske Vogue. Her er et utdrag, jeg anbefaler deg å klikke på teksten for å lese hele:

Why do they call this place grainy, ugly and hellish? True, it is a difficult place, where war is tattooed on hands and tongues. For if it is not being fought it is being talked about. True, it is a place of thirst, belly aches and unforgivable remembrance. But what about the colors? What the hell have they done with my colors?
It was much later in life that I began to realize, that these newspaper men and women were not conspiring and concealing. That in fact they were colorblind in the worst way. That they could not see the beauty I grew up seeing.
You have to have loved a place to see its true colors.

Cut to the chase pan across to the face, I'm right there
Freeze frame on the street name, oops, wait a minute
this is where the streets have no name and the drain of sewage
You can see it in this boy how the hate is brewin'

'Cause when his tummy ticks in, fuck, the pain is fluid
So what difference dose it mak entertaining, threw it
Some get high mixing coke and gun powder, sniffing'
She got a gun but could have been a model or physician.


Han er ikke skyggeredd, den godeste K'naan, og har blant annet flere ganger gått ut og forsvart somaliske pirater. Man kan trygt si at det er et kontroversielt standpunkt i vestlige medier, men K'naan hevder at mediene forenkler bildet av situasjonen i Somalia og ikke vet nok om bakgrunnen: The west is completely ignoring the basis for piracy in Somalia. The pirates are in the water because there is a nationwide complaint about the illegal mass fishing going on in Somali waters. And nuclear toxic waste is illegally being dumped on our shores. People in Somalia know about this.

So what you know 'bout the pirates terrorize the ocean
To never know a simple day without a big commotion
It can't be healthy just to live with such a steep commotion
but when I try and sleep, I see coffins closing'


Her kan du se K'naan snakke om piratene:




P.S. Jada, jeg vet at det er onsdag i dag, men jeg rakk ikke å poste noen tirsdagslyd i går, så jeg skyver litt på rutinene. Fordi jeg kan. Jeg har nemlig juleferie.