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Dhib iyo qaxar

Waayaha Cusub
Language: Somali


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Related Songs

Soomalaay dirira
(Waayaha Cusub)
Dangerous Crossings
(Aar Maanta)
Dadka yaa xasuuqay
(Waayaha Cusub)


waayahaSomali exiles use music to slam war

NAIROBI: Upon entering a tiny recording studio in a grimy Nairobi building, Felis removes her face veil, slides headphones onto her ears and starts singing in a high voice: “Girls are raped. Warlords are to blame”.

Over a soundtrack of world music and rap, Felis Abdi and the group Waayaha Cusub, made up of some 20 young Somali refugees, crudely slam the war that has torn up their country for 16 years, almost all their lives.

“All the people have been killed. Let us repair the country. There is no school, there is no peace,” sings Waayaha Cusub, which means “New Era” in Somali.

“People listen to you more when you sing than when you speak,” says Abdiwali Ibrahim Garyare, one of the group’s singers, who has lived in Kenya for 17 years.

“We can make a difference because the young generation listens to us,” adds 17-year-old Felis, who has a gap between her teeth.

The group’s choreographer, Djamila Djama, says that five Somali boys, who now live in Nairobi, stopped carrying guns after listening to the anti-war rhetoric of their songs. The tunes have blasted out of radios in Kenya and Somalia — in Somali, Swahili and English — since the group was created in 2004.

Their videos, featuring militias armed with rocket launchers, civilian massacres and burning buildings, are broadcast across the Internet. They are often filmed in Nairobi’s Eastleigh neighbourhood, nicknamed “little Mogadishu” due to its large Somali population.

Waayaha Cusub spares no player in Somalia’s war from its criticism: warlords who have imposed their own laws for years; Islamists who controlled south and central Somalia at the end of last year; Ethiopian troops who deployed in Somalia last year to help the government oust the Islamists; and Somali authorities who they accuse of “collaborating” with Addis Ababa.

One song, “Freedom,” rails against the Islamic Courts Union which banned music and imposed a strict dress code for women during its six-month rule at the end of last year. Somalis generally practise a moderate form of Islam.

“We don’t want that religious extremism. We want our freedom, the freedom to listen to what we want. We want to see women’s faces,” the group sings.

Waayaha Cusub claims to preach peace, despite the violent tone of certain songs, such as “Somalia”, which criticises Ethiopian “colonisers”: “The Ethiopians are forming indirect colony with the world watching. May Allah lead them to the grave.” The group’s rapper, Dikriyo Abdi Ilmi, defends the harsh lyrics.

“We wrote that story when we were very angry. We are not telling the Somali people to fight against the Ethiopians but to find a way to work together so that the Ethiopians leave,” explains Ilmi, who is too tall to stand up straight in the tiny, barely soundproofed studio.
Anigoon maryaha xiran aqoon oon martabad gaarin
Ayuunbaa murtidu igu duxdiyo mooshinkii gabaye
Mowlaha ilaahbaa I baray kala macnayntiise
Marba xaaladdii taaganbaan miro ka taabtaaye
Maantana tixdaanaa cusube mahad Allee hooya.

Mahuraanka soomaali waa miro walaallaaye
Maariinka midabkeenu waa muunad gooniya,e
Diintuna midweeyoo islaan miiran baan nahaye
Mujrim kuma jiriyo gaal harkii macatab qaataaye
Waa wada maxaafidul qur`aan miro yar mooyaane
Hayeeshee madmadow baa kujira muumin nimadeene
Mawaafaqadi baa naga dhuntiyo maqalki fiicnaaye
Maskaxdeeni baa laga masaxay inaan midownaaye
Iminkiyo markii aan dhashoo magaca laydooray
Soomaali waa muransanayd maalin iyo layle
Miyi iyo magaalaba dhibbaa meelkastaba yiile.

Inaan maamul wada jira dhisnoo meel iskugu guurno
Mabda eedibaa inaka maqan inaan midownaaye
Haddaan mowqifleenahay inbadan milic majoogneene
Maslaxaddeena kama tuugsaneen gaal muraaddalehe
Males iyo Siyaas uma tasheen toban mataanaaye
Muqdishiyo hargaysaan waqood kala maqnaadeene
Kii maxasta laayaan noqdeen mudane reerroode
Mishin laguma fuliyeen raggii magaca waynaaye
Miinadu maleyseen caruur loo fasaxay meelle
Madfacuna quraac uma noqdeen maato taag darane
Waxaa miigo loo xiri lahaa muumin kii dilaye.

Mooryaan makala qaybsateen maal dadleeyahay,e
Markay soo marqaamaan marduuf uma dilleen ruuxe
Mijin qaadda awgeed qofnool baas ma mariyeene
Midnimadu inay wacantahaan idin muhiim siine
Haddii aan martabad leenihiyo maamul talinaaya
Intaasoo mushkiladdood miyaa dhici lahaa maanta?

Contributed by Riccardo Venturi - 2007/8/22 - 15:01


ETIOPIA: CESSATE IL FUOCO CON LA RIBELLIONE DEL TIGRAY, MA BOMBARDAMENTI SUGLI OROMO
Gianni Sartori

Divisa in 12 stati federali, con la sua popolazione di circa 120 milioni di abitanti, l’Etiopia costituisce un vasto mosaico di gruppi etnici (un’ottantina), situazione che periodicamente ha portato a contenziosi e conflitti con il governo di Addis Abeba.

Risale a circa un mese fa il cessate il fuoco concordato tra il governo di Addis Abeba e gli insorti del Tigray.

Rimane invece irrisolta la questione dell’altra regione ribelle, l’Oromia.

Abitata dagli Oromo (presenti anche nel Kenya e un tempo conosciuti come Galla, termine caduto in disuso in quanto ritenuto dispregiativo) e che sarebbe opportuno coinvolgere nei colloqui peraccordi di pace.

Invece, sempre circa un mese fa (la notizia risaliva al 28 ottobre 2022), il Fronte di Liberazione Oromo (Olf) e l’Oromo Liberation Army (Ola) lanciavano una grave accusa al governo etiope, ossia di aver attaccato con l’aviazione causando la morte anche di centinaia di civili.

Gli Oromo costituiscono il più numeroso gruppo etnico (40 milioni, il 35% della popolazione complessiva) presente nel territorio dell’Etiopia. Ma spesso vivono in una situazione di sottosviluppo, marginalizzazione e discriminazione che, almeno in parte, sarebbe indotta dalle politiche del governo federale.

Fatalmente ciò ha favorito la nascita di movimenti e organizzazioni che intendevano battersi sia per l’autodeterminazione del popolo Oromo. Alcuni apertamente indipendentisti*.

Nata nel 1963, la Mecha and Tulama Self-Help Organization venne sciolta forzatamente nel 1966.

Maggior fortuna ebbe la Oromo people’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) che rappresenta uno dei quattro partiti al governo in Etiopia.

Tra l’altro è Oromo, il primo di questa etnia a ricoprire la carica, il primo ministro Abiy Ahmed.

L’anno scorso, nel dicembre 2021, nel quadro della commissione per il dialogo nazionale, vennero rimessi in libertà, oltre a esponenti del TPLF (Fronte popolare di liberazione del Tigray), anche membri dei gruppi Amhara e Oromo. Inoltre nelgennaio 2022, Abiy Ahmed ha invocato pubblicamente la “riconciliazione nazionale” durante le celebrazioni per il Natale ortodosso. Anche, si presume, per eludere la minaccia di sanzioni da parte degli USA.

Gianni Sartori

nota 1: Tra I gruppi più intransigenti, radicali: l’Oromo Liberation Front, l’Oromia Liberation Council, l’Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia, l’Oromo National Congress e l’United Liberation Forces of Oromia, l'Oromia Liberation Army (OLA). 

Gianni Sartori - 2022/12/9 - 18:32




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