Music in the Kanuri culture has always been a no-no – but a 19-year-old is hoping to change all that, saying it is a great tool for peace and development.
Umar Ali – known as Lil-Umar – told RNI reporter Nana Hadiza Mustapha that it was seeing how young people, who had grown up in the insurgency and who only knew destruction and fear, and who desperately needed peace, stability and development in their lives, that made him decide to embark on his musical career.
He said modern music was a growing trend, which had, in the past, not been recognised in the Kanuri culture.
“I want to change all that. I want music in the Kanuri language to be recognised and enjoyed. I want it to become part of our culture,” Umar said.
“People can use music to incorporate their culture, their feelings about their lived experiences, their perceptions of life and their hopes and dreams,” he said.
“I was born and bought up in a Kanuri household and I never heard anyone singing around me. But since primary education level, I would sit down and write music, drama or poetry. I found it calming among all the hardship and harshness around me. I grew up during the insurgency years and saw how it had affected not only older people, but often even more so the youngsters. It was a grave time and there was little joy to be had.”
Umar said he wrote a song call Maiduguri to bring attention to the horror that was happening around them. It was a means to call on children to “emulate a good traits so that a peaceful and developed society could come out of the terror around us”.
Umar still believes that music, art, drama and poetry is a greater tool for peace in society than the gun, the violence and the fear that people had experienced since the insurgency started in 2009.
Speaking about his song, Maiduguri, he said he had not had enough technical equipment to produce music of great quality, but he had refused to give up.
“I played the song for my mentor who taught me music. I had recorded it on my phone. We edited it and then shared it with the children and young people.”
Umar said he had been challenged by many people because music was seen as something unacceptable in Kanuri society.
“Even my parents did not accept it at first. They told me that what I was doing was not allowed in our culture and I was being disrespectful.”
Umar is now studying at the Lamisula Day Secondary School in Maiduguri.
“I want society to develop and get back to the days before the insurgency; to make our city great again. There are many who have the talent to sing but their parents have always stopped them and been a barrier to that side of their growth. I know that one is taught to never go against one’s parents. But I hope this will change and that parents will allow their children to put their talent to good use.”
He hoped young people would have the courage to fight for their talent to be recognised and that they would never give up.
Umar said the authorities should invest more into music because “music gets through to people, especially youngsters, and it can bring about a lot of positive changes in a society”.
AISHA SD JAMAL
