As global attention shifts to the conflict between the U.S. and Somali pirates, rapper/poet K’Naan shares his dual perspective as a Somali refugee who also lived in Harlem. The 31-year-old rapper (who has also called Toronto home) overcame a gun-toting childhood in Mogadishu to make music that preaches about peace and love in a genre of music often characterized by violence and hyper-macho-gangster lyrics. He says Somalia may be troubled but the Somali people aren’t the enemy. “There is no government. It’s just been without a central government for 18, 19 years. There is no police system. There’s none of that. That’s what a lot of people in the West can’t grasp. You’re talking about a country without any real functioning institution. There’s no police, there’s no ambulance service, there’s just people with guns fighting for different corners.”
General
Somalia’s pirate problem
Hip-hop sensation K’Naan, a Somali refugee, on the conflict
