Music Is Here to Call for Peace
By Melissa Chemam
This month, I’m not going to try to hide it, as I write in the aftermath of the start of a horrible war, this situation has deeply disrupted my work, thoughts and wellbeing. The obsessive and quite unhealthily sleepless news junkie in me spent hours and hours a day reading and sharing the best articles and radio work on Ukraine and its complex relations with Russia, the EU and the US. I also know quite a few of the journalists working on the ground, for Libération, RFI or Al Jazeera English…
So when I thought about writing this column, originally planned to be dedicated to Beirut, I suddenly wanted to bring music from Odesa… Which is part of the Great Middle East, and one of its interesting liminal points, due to its complex past, its Greek roots, long Ottoman and Russian history.
Odesa is today one of the largest cities in Ukraine and also a key part of the resistance against Putin’s troops.
I’ve long been a big fan of Klezmer music, and this city in southern Ukraine played a large role in its development.
‘Goodbye Odessa’ - Yiddish Song
One of my favorite graphic novels retells this history, Klezmer, by the multi-talented Joann Sfar. I’ve read it again and again, and listened to hours of music from Odesa all along…
Klezmer - Joann Sfar
And Sfar has since February 24 been posting illuminating drawing on the situation in Odesa and Ukraine in general, notably on Instagram.
Joann Sfar’s Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/joannsfar/
Yet, as the war continues, the military crisis has induced a refugee crisis, and more than a million Ukrainians have since been on the run.
Having worked for years on other refugee crises, I was in shock. However, I couldn’t help but thinking about all the refugees I interviewed in my life, from Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Turkey and West Africa.
Unlike our European neighbours, they weren’t welcome with open arms, unfortunately… My heart goes out to them even more, while some African students have also been stranded in Kyiv and Lviv and refused entry at many borders, rendering them to stay at risk in a war ravaging a country that is not even their home. Among them, many Algerians, and friends of people I know in my mother’s country.
Thus, Beirut seemed relevant again, a city that has recently been through so much horror and still hosts millions of refugees from its neighbouring countries. No crisis should prevail on the others, even though western media constantly cherry-pick what they choose to be headlining.
I thought about Beirut, when I read that Sama’ Abdulhadi, the brilliant Palestinian DJ I mentioned in my first music column, was planning a series of events in support of the citizens of the city, with Jad Taleb, Sam Karam & Tryangleman and Resident Advisor, called ‘Bring Back Beirut’. Two fundraising evenings of music were scheduled, in Paris and in London. First at Le Sacré, rue Montmartre, Paris 2e, on March 10; then at Phonox, in Brixton for Saturday March 12, 2022.
Sama’ Abdulhadi has been raising money for Lebanon for months now. This series of events will then travel to Berlin and further, if the pandemic still allows. The money will go to Nusaned, a humanitarian, community-based volunteer organisation based in the Lebanese capital, donating 100 percent of the booking fee.
Nusaned’s website here: https://nusaned.org/en
The series is scheduled to culminate in a free, large-scale event in Beirut itself in late 2022.
No need to stress how much music has been important for people in need throughout these past couple of decades of horrible humanitarian crises. Musicians have often been the first to start fundraising, though some of the first to be stricken by the pandemic as well. Sama’ is no exception to this fabulous rule.
“Lebanon is currently in the grip of one of the worst economic crises in the world,” she wrote in her presentation of the events. “Electricity, water, food and medicine are scarce; there has also been a monetary crisis aggravated by hyperinflation for commodities. Beirut is widely regarded as the most important club scene in the MENA region, and despite the crisis caused by the 2020 port explosion, arts and culture are alive and fighting.”
Fighting is the key word here. Fighting back, resisting and taking action, instead of feeling desperate. In the words of the Russian punk singer, Pussy Riots leader and anti-Putin activist Nadya Tolokonnikova “at a time like this, only activism will keep you sane.” (Guardian, March 8, 2022)
In the same way, one of Ukraine’s most famous musicians, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, leader of the Ukrainian group Okean Elzy, also a former politician and now an activist against the war, has been visiting the frontlines to see troops and hospitals, and very active on social media to bring aid to his people.
SOS Ukraine: Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
Sama’ Abdulhadi, whose career exploded via a Boiler Room live broadcast on the streets of Ramallah in 2018, “chose the charity Nusaned to be the recipient of the funds because it is a community-based, humanitarian, voluntary organization, and is not aligned with political factions or religions. It is based in Beirut and close to its people.
“I am launching the ‘Bring Back Beirut’ initiative to help Lebanon get back on its feet,” Sama’ wrote. “Beirut needs us! The region is still destroyed in the aftermath of the 2020 explosion. Beirut is my second home; it’s the place where I found myself in music and where I found my freedom. It’s the least I can do to help bring the situation to light.”
Sama' Abdulhadi: The Palestinian techno queen blasting around the globe
(4:3 by Boiler Room)
Like Sama’, millions of Palestinians and other refugees have called Beirut a second home, and it’s currently left behind. It’s not in the headlines anymore, let alone on constant rotation on mainstream television channels.
As I worked on so many post-conflict situations – in Kenya, in Liberia, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in Central African Republic… I spent almost two decades of my journalism carrier worrying about war that most had already forgotten. I’m tremendously relieved that these musicians haven’t forgotten them either.
In the same way, we won’t forget Svyatoslav Vakarchuk and the Ukrainian refugees.
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