PHOTO ESSAY

Rebel Yells

A protest music mixtape

By Matthew McKinnon

August 12, 2005

• 1
|
• 2
|
• 3
|
• 4
|
• 5
|
• 6
|
• 7
|
• 8
|
• 9
|
• 10
|
• 11
|
• 12
|
• 13
|
• 14
|
• 15

K'naan. Photo Steve Carty.

Soobax, K’naan

(The Dusty Foot Philosopher, 2005)

K’naan Warsame, the “traveller... who carries the words of peace,” was born in Somalia, a land plagued by intermittent civil war since 1977. He fled his country at age 14, and now cannot return for fear of being killed. Two years ago, the rapper journeyed from his adopted home of Toronto to Kenya, which borders Somalia, to film a video for Soobax (pronounced “So-bah,” means to “come out”). The song, which K’naan rhymed in Somali and English, was a blazing rebuke of the warlords who destroyed his homeland. “My skin needs to feel the sand, the sun / I’m tired of the cold, God damn soobax... / I mean what I say / I don’t do it for show / Somalia needs all gunmen right out.”