K'Naan got my attention

A fellow volunteer here in Kayes introduced me to K'Naan's music recently. I started researching him a little, and I've been transfixed by his story, and the story of his birth place- Somalia.

"Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, just as the civil unrest that rocked the country was beginning, rapper K'NAAN spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier. When K'NAAN (whose name means "traveler" in Somali) was 13, he, his mother, and his two siblings were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in Harlem, where they stayed briefly before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where there was a large Somali community. As soon as his English started improving, he began rapping, and in tenth grade he dropped out of school and traveled around North America for two years, performing occasionally. Through his friendship with Sol Guy, part of promotion team Direct Current Media, K'NAAN was able to perform at the United Nations' 50th anniversary concert in 1999, held in Geneva, where he used his platform to publicly criticize the United Nations' handling of the Somali crisis in the 1990s." http://www.starpulse.com/Music/K%27Naan/Biography/ 

Because of media attention and coverage, Somalia may be best known today for the incidents of piracy that frequently occur off of the coast. Wikipedia offers an incredibly long list of ships that have been attacked off the coast of Somalia. K'Naan, in this video, argues that this modern piracy arose initially in response to Somalians defending themselves from foreign corporations dumping nuclear waste in Somali waters. It eventually evolved into a lucrative endeavor for citizens of this poor, war-torn country.


While pirates are making their living off-shore, the inhabitants are suffering through a brutal civil war terra firma led by Al Shabaab, Islamic extremists allied with Al Qaeda. This France 24 special report (2009) on the situation in Mogadishu, the capital, gives the perspective of some of the African peace-keeping troops.



In short, the situation in Somalia is desperate. K'Naan uses music to grab peoples' attention and tell them about what the world is like from his unique perspective. Some of his songs are really heavy, like "Fatima," which laments the death of a child-hood love who was killed in Somalia before he moved to the US. K'Naan is an alternative to violent, materialistic rap with no message other than instant gratification. Because of that, he's my current favorite- enjoy!