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Somalis in exile send home rap tracks of peace
Hip-hop group Waayaha Cusub, or 'New Era,' is gaining the ear of Somalis from as far away as the US and Europe, but their controversial message challenges traditional norms and is attracting threats of violence.
from the September 14, 2007 edition
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The threats and violence hit closer to home as well. One female member of the band had her face slashed on the streets of Little Mogadishu one evening, a day after receiving anonymous phone calls saying she would be attacked. She has since quit the band and is in hiding.
These attacks proved to the band that the nearly daily threats were serious. But band members say they refuse to stop what they're doing, and want the world to know what they're facing.
"The government doesn't help us. The government doesn't know anything about us," says Abdullahi, who says he is asking anyone who will listen to help provide security.
Until then, the group keeps churning out hit singles and videos from their ramshackle studio on the top of a concrete shell of a building. They are due to release a new album next month.
Waayaha Cusub: Practicing what they rhyme
The group's lead rapper, Quincy Brian – who goes by the name Q. Rap and attempts an American-accented "How ya doin'?" with the appropriate rapper-style head-nod followed by a shy smile – came to Kenya years ago as a political refugee from his native Ethiopia, a bitter historic enemy of Somalia.
Q. Rap says he gets hassled by Ethiopians for "selling out his country" by making music about peace with Somalis. And after Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December to root out Islamists who had taken over wide swaths of the country, the Somali band members faced increased pressure to kick Q. Rap out. But they never gave in.
"They showed me love, even though I'm Ethiopian," he says, after horsing around with one of the band's Somali female members. "The youth can learn from us."
The lead singer, Falis Abdi, who fled Somalia for Kenya in 2003, says she doesn't only educate people about peace and HIV/AIDS: "I tell them how love goes," she says.
One of the group's hits songs stars Ms. Adbi singing about how a woman should choose whom she wants to love, rather than being forced by parents or society to be with someone because of wealth or clan identity.
For her, the song is personal, because her mother chased away the boy she loved. But now, Abdi is forced to walk the streets of Little Mogadishu with a head scarf and veil. If she's recognized, she fears people will make good on threats to throw stones at her. What makes her so brave? First of all, she loves making the music, and second: "Somali culture will change if they listen to my song."
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