K'NAAN - SOMALIA
>via: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lCPXEARpE8
__________________________Somali-Born K'naan Sees
Famine's Effects Firsthand
A deadly combination of drought and conflict has caused a famine in Somalia — which is threatening the lives of more than half the country's population. Somali-Canadian rapper K'naan made a recent visit to his troubled homeland, and he talks to Renee Montagne about what he saw.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
One man hoping to raise awareness about the unfolding tragedy in Somali is Somali-Canadian rap star K'naan. He has just traveled back to his homeland for the first time since he left to witness the impact of the famine - a famine that's killed nearly 30,000 children in the last three months alone. The exact number of those starving is hard to now. And after visiting the capital Mogadishu and Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, K'naan believes that shouldn't be the focus.
Mr. K'NAAN (Rapper): I don't think that we should speak about those kinds of numbers, because what it does is it turns off the part of the mind that probably transmits that information to the heart. I think we need to talk about this in ones and twos. It gets normalized in a way. And I feel that we're not doing the people that are suffering any justice.
MONTAGNE: As an artist and as a person who has a lot of people who will hear you, what was the moment that brought it home for you?
Mr. K'NAAN: We were in a hospital in Banadir in Mogadishu. The Banadir hospital is the hospital that I, myself, was born in. Another celebrated Somali, who is a friend of mine, Iman the supermodel, was also born in Banadir. And there was a moment. It wasn't the scale of famine of loss and of the dire need. But it was a father who looked dignified holding his daughter, looking up at him with her eyes sort of fading away into death. And him looking down, with all of us around, and the powerlessness of a father who is not able to deliver on the promise to a daughter.
We tell the children: We will protect you. And he is looking at his daughter, unable to deliver on this promise. That was the most terrifying thing I've ever had to see.
MONTAGNE: You spent your childhood in Mogadishu, moved to Canada in the early '90s when civil war broke out, and a different earlier famine set in. This is the first time you've been home.
K'NAAN: Yeah. It was a strange experience to have left Somalia as a child and to return as someone who has a voice and that is celebrated artist at a time when I'm needed to return, but also where I would have rather returned to a prosperous, beautiful country. But, you know, 20 years later, I'm going home to the worst problem I've ever seen.
MONTAGNE: One of the biggest obstacles to getting aid into Somalia has been the heavy hand of the Islamist al-Shabab rebels. They have prevented aid from getting in.
Can you see the effect? Is it a little bit better?
K'NAAN: The country and Mogadishu right now, it's in a unique position where the goodwill of the world is very much being welcomed by the Mogadishu residents. You know, organizations can go in, and people are saying this is safe. There's a very small window of opportunity, and we can use it wisely, or lose a people to militants and war and starvation.
MONTAGNE: Your grandfather was a renowned poet. And your aunt, your late aunt was one of the best-known singers in Somalia. Do you feel like that's one gift you have or one hand you can extend, which is to use your voice and to use your poetry?
K'NAAN: I'm just a human being kind of dealing with this circumstance. I mean, I'm trying to use the tools that I have to do what I can, spend my own money to raise the profile media-wise, do anything humanly possible so that I can live with myself. I don't want to have watched a tragedy unfolding and then live with the regret that follows, that we've done nothing.
The one thing that I can do - and it might be the thing that I'm probably most suited for - to, you know, articulate a sentiment. I guess that's what poets to. But I - sometimes there isn't enough poetry that can hold the scope of the tragedy. And that's what I'm dealing with. You know, it's a tragedy that is bigger and more profound that even poetry is. That's saying a lot. It's a tough place for anybody to be in.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
K'NAAN: It was a pleasure. Thank you for doing it.
(Soundbite of song, "Waving Flag")
K'NAAN: (Singing) They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag. And then it goes back...
MONTAGNE: That's the rapper K'naan Warsame, himself a child of Somalia. We reached him in Nairobi.
(Soundbite of song, "Waving Flag")
K'NAAN: (Singing) Stronger than Rome, but violent prone. Poor people zone, but it's my own...
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
Posted by David Braun of National Geographic August 24, 2011
Poet, rapper and songwriter K’naan has returned to Somalia for the first time since he fled his native land with his family in 1991. Traveling with Sol Guy, his business partner and manager (and National Geographic Emerging Explorer), his mission is to help raise awareness (and relief funding) for millions of starving people. “A life no less valuable than yours and mine. And without any dramatization, without sounding a single bell, we are now at risk of losing 12 million of those ones. In that thought alone, it is remarkable that the world does not come to a halt,” K’naan and Sol said in a statement before their departure for Africa.
Here is their report of what they have found in Somalia. Please follow the link at the bottom to find out how you can help the hunger relief effort.
By Sol Guy
Mogadishu, Somalia — Earlier this month the United Nations announced that the first famine in 20 years was unfolding in Somalia and throughout the Horn of Africa. I have a unique connection to the region as one of my best friends and business partners is the Somali-born poet and singer K’naan. It turns out the last time a famine was announced it was in the same region.
How is it possible that in 2011 we find ourselves repeating the mistakes of the past? How can we not rally globally and come up with innovative solutions? We can’t completely plan for a tsunami or an earthquake, but we can surely be proactive as opposed to reactive when it comes to a drought and famine that the people in this region have been warning us about for the past three years.
I don’t want to simplify the solution as Somalia is a complex country, that has had no central government for 20 years. With a civil war raging, the international community found itself unable to engage with the oncoming humanitarian disaster. However, as the situation began to unfold I went through every emotion, from anger and hope to wondering why the world didn’t seem to care. What I realized is that in a world where we see disasters daily and our attention span is minimal, we seem to have become dysfunctional in our ability to help those in need.
So what do we do? We knew we had to do something and realized the best thing we could do was to go to Somalia ourselves, to see what was happening and build our plan from there. We took a trip to humanity’s edge, where opportunity and tragedy walk a razor’s edge.
This would be my brother K’naan’s first trip back to the city of his birth since he fled with his family in 1991 as the country crumbled. Here’s some photos from our trip into Mogadishu. Click on each photo to enlarge them. All photos by Nabil Elderkin.
To go to Mogadishu you need a plan. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
Ten years since we dreamed of this day, not under these conditions....but we're here nonetheless. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
The longest shoreline in Africa. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
Almost home. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
When the world refuses to take notice. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
The vibrant colors of an IDP Camp (Internally Displaced Person) in Mogadishu. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
The Strength -- Shelled but still standing. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
The boys in the hood. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
Bird's-eye view of the nation of poets and warriors. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
The Eyes -- Impossible to look away. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
A young Somali doctor doing everything he can to help under the most extreme circumstances, explains the needs to K'naan and I at Banadir Hospital, where K'naan was born. Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
What is there to say? Photo credit: Nabil Elderkin.
Provide Famine Relief in Somalia
Make a donation right now to provide famine relief in Somalia. Neighbors Initiative is a program to strengthen the fabric of local communities by uniting and mobilizing to provide desperately needed humanitarian relief in Somalia. It’s a partnership between the American Refugee Committee and the Somali community. We’ll put your donation to work immediately, bringing life-saving support to families in Somalia. Food, clean water, sanitation, shelter — people really need our help, Neighbors Initiative says on its website. Find out more.
