Fighting on the Frontlines
All eyes are on Eastleigh these days, and the question on many people’s mind is what will the Somali response be to the fall out of the Westgate tragedy? One such response is coming from the Somali hip-hop collective, Waayaha Cusub, which was crafted long before the tragedy happened.
Since 2004 Waayaha Cusub have been on the frontlines of this fight against extremism, and with songs like “Yaabka al Shabaab” (“Get Out al-Shabaab”) the group has been targeted by Al-Shabaab for a long time, and has survived three separate attacks over the years.
In 2007, armed men broke into the home of the frontman, Shiine Abdullahi Ali, and shot him five times. He managed to escape, but suffered internal organ injuries, as was well as an arm wound. He is still standing and after losing one of his best friends in the Westgate terror attack, he is more determined than ever to preach a positive message to the young people.
“This is a battle of minds. Young people are getting brainwashed. These guys are not even preaching the Quran. What they are preaching makes no sense. The Quran says that when you kill an innocent person you are guaranteed to burn in hell,” says Shiine.
We are sitting in a small apartment in Eastleigh where the 11-member hip-hop collective that includes Somalis, Kenyans, an Ethiopian and a Ugandan, is building a studio. These are humble surroundings for some of Somalia’s absolute superstars. When Waayaha Cusub performs they draw crowds of thousands of people in Eastleigh, even though their concerts are seldom advertised due to security reasons.
The studio is being built as part of the groups outreach to young people. They have been hosting monthly open mic sessions in hopes to bring some new talent into the studio. “If I can get one of these kids into the studio and do something positive, that is one kid that the extremists will not reach. We want everyone to share the ideas, the songs, the mic,” Shiine says.
The Somali Sunrise Tour for Peace
Waayaha Cusub means ‘New Era’, and that is exactly what the group is trying to usher in for both Kenya and Somalia. In 2012 they launched the Somalia Sunrise Tour for Peace that kicked off in New York with Somali/ Canadian superstar K’Naan. The Kenyan band Afro Simba came together with Waayaha Cusub in 2011, and became the house band on the tour. Together they travelled to Mogadishu in March 2013, to perform on the Somali Sunrise Tour for Peace. “I want people to understand that we are one people. That is why we have come together. To show that it is possible,” says Kombo Chokwe, lead man of Afro Simba.
He admits that they initially feared going to Somalia. His heart was racing as the plane touched down in Mogadishu, but he soon discovered another side of Somalia. “It was much more modern than I thought. A lot of dancing. You guys get down. When the Al-Shabaab is not looking, you like to loosen up and shake a bit, don’t you?” he says in a joking tone addressed to Shiine, with a big smile on his face while quivering his body. Even though the topics are heavy, the overall mood in the room is light. The conversation goes from terrorism to hope and sometimes spins into a jovial tone about the universal topic men always bond over: women.
The Somalia Sunrise Tour was initiated and funded by Waayaha Cusub and included over 15 different Somali and international artists. The overall aim of the tour was to expose the general public to modern music. The tour has since put on hold, but 6 more shows have been scheduled in the future.
Growing Up Under Siege
Shiine, age 31, and another member of the group, Lihlle Muhudin Nur, 26, spent some of their young years in Somalia in the 1990s. When he was 8 years old Lihlle spent 6 months training with Al-Itihaad (Al- Shabaab’s predecessor), carrying water to the fighters, learning how to shoot and clean guns. “When you grow up in Somalia you have two choices. You can either go to school with books, pencils and food or you can go to the ones without anything. The extremists have the funding and the better schools,” he says. Eventually he was brought back to Eastleigh and left the fight behind.
Fleeing Somalia they found a different kind of fight going on in Nairobi. As they started making music and speaking out against the Warlord and extremists groups in Somalia, they became targets. This was before Al-Shabaab’s time but still dangerous days to be critical against powerful factions in Somali society.
Amongst the members of Waayaha Cusub, there seems to be a reminiscence of “the good old days” when the Somali society was “just” fighting against powerful clan division and warlords. “We almost wish ourselves back to the times of the Warlords. Al-Shabaab, they don’t care about clans or anything. They kill the women and the children,” says Shiine.
Al-Shabaab and extremist religious leaders started heavy youth recruitment drives in Eastleigh in 2009, spreading a message of hatred. “They started doing ‘Road Shows’. So we tried to stop them. We tried to challenge that through music. We tried to stop them from taking these kids to war,” says the 19 year old Koi Koi Abdhel Ahmed, one of the youngest members of the group. The road shows have been used to spread extremist propaganda and recruit young people to go and join the fighters in Somalia.
Alongside the extremist propaganda, several bombings have been terrorising the neighbourhood over the last couple of years. Local MP, Yusuf Hassan, has tried to raise the issue but has been shouting to deaf ears.
“In the past two years, there have been 11 bomb attacks in my constituency. Yet there have been no arrests, and not one single person brought to court. What does that tell you about the state of the investigations?” He recently told the Guardian.
Many people in Eastleigh fear repercussions of the Westgate Terror attack and some have even started to flee the neighbourhood.
“We fear two things,” Shiine says. “We are afraid of the Kenyan government and afraid of the mobs.” Last time Al-Shabaab launched grenade attacks on Kenyan soil, there was a tough crackdown by the government in Eastleigh and mobs of young Kenyans entered the Neighbourhood to beat up Somalis. The members of Waayaha Cusub are vigilant and they have guys watching the building where the studio is being built, and there is even someone looking after Shiine’s car in case someone tries to blow it up. Despite the danger, the collective is determined to keep going.
“The only way to kill Al-Shabaab is by creating awareness and educating young people. We need to come together as artists and understand that these people are the enemy of the entire world,” he says.
