hees: rivers that are thirsty for one another :)

[afdhere]

***

hola mamis and papitos,

a few days ago i was listening to a rendition of a beloved song from the past, "webiyo isu ooman." it left me sad, and reminded me of the state of our people's art: that musicians are so poor these days they can only afford cheap techno crap to accompany their beautiful voices. in the process, of course, some partake borderline sacrilegious artistic missteps by choosing to offer renditions of classics.

imagine, "rivers that are thirsty for one another, who made pacts, and who looked for one another for a long time, who no one could come between them, nor could be advised against each other, and when they couldn't find each other, almost going crazy, have you ever heard of them?" [webiyo isu ooman, inay wacatameenoo, waayo badan isdooneen, in loo kala waramo iyo, wacdi la isu sheego iyo, waano lagala quustay, goortay iswaayeyn, isu waalan gaareyn, weligiin ma maqasheen?]

those were the imagination of xuseen aw-faarax, even though the melody came from bashiir xadi, the lyrics were by maxamed cali kaariye, and was sung by the irreplaceable magool.

and, sadly, these days some kid in minneapolis is left to pop it out in his cheap laptop.

it reminded me of the prophecy by a somali poet, who in the mid 1980s predicted: "curubaa laseexdee hadaan ciid lakala jeexan..."

in the meantime, don't lose hope, there are some who are at it: one of my favorite renditions of this song is by farxiya fiska, who had taken the time and the investments to play it out in glorious kaban. may the saints of art bestow blessings upon her! aamiin

afdhere

[Macarons]

Saints of art kulaha lol. It was good until that pretentious phrase bit.

[barbarossa]

I agree with Longmouth, Magool (AUN) was and shall forever remain the Matriarch Saint of fanaaniinta Soomaaliyeed.

[gurey25]

fascinating,
i have always found modern somali music to be utter shit.

but afhdeer how are ya doing man.
its been a while since you posted in SNet

[AwRastaale]

Good informative piece but you should teach these kids bit more about those legends.

I know Aw Farah. He is the father of qaraami. He founded walaalaha Hargeysa and did the first ever qaraami show in Mogadishu.

He is one of the founding fathers of Somali music.

Kariye tho reer Konfuur originally he grew up in SL and Magol from central Somalia was named Xalima until Yusuf Haji Adan Qabile named her Magool. He was the father of Fowsia and co-author of Soomaliyeey tosow song.

The first Somali national anthem (proper) was by another member of the group Abdillahi Qarshe, a reer Waqooyi brought up in Tanzania who met Aw Farah, Hudeidi and Hadraawi in Aden during Quranic education.

I have no idea the other fellas.

Our friend uses the term saints probably in honour of Hussein Aw-Farah. Remember aw is acronym for Awliya. These were early Somalis who were believed to have performed miracles such as cures with Quranic verses.

Thus his father was one of those waqooyi holy men like Sh Aw-Barkhadle...probably not as big.

Awliya - Saint
Aw - St.

[afdhere]

gurey, bro! how are you? good to see you. as you know i'm one of the original members of the forum, going back to the days when we had a different platform than this oh, those were the days!

[afdhere]

macarons, you probably don't know... but we have saints like uways axmed (google "uways al-barawi") or just google christine choi ahmed's illuminating scholarly article "god, anti-colonialism and drums: sheikh uways and the uwaysiyya" and by god sing "sheekh cabdulqaadir jeylaani, uways oo axmad waliya allaay..." and if you can make siyaaro to biyooleey!

[afdhere]

awrastaale, afkaaga caano lagu qabey! wallahi you reminded me of yusuf haji adan, what an incredible suugaan we have! when i hear the song "nin lagu seexdoow ha seexan" i remember how he transformed from a cultural giant to cultural hero, as in the 1980s he sacrificed his privileged life to be part of the snm. may history remember such souls with greater emphasis!

[afdhere]

by the way, here is the rendition of the song by fiska: