Uncageable Songbird: The Tale of Maryan Mursal

(Somali Jazz with founder Maryan Mursal - Bottom Center)

The story begins in the lush white sandy beaches of Mogadishu where Maryan Mursal was born. She never was musically inclined or came from a musical family, but a burning passion for music manifested itself spontaneously within her one fateful day. The year was 1964 and she was just 14 years old when she stumbled across a group of older boys playing music and singing in their home around the old neighborhood. Her curiosity got the best of her so approached the house and stood at the front door, listening curiously to the scene unfolding before her. While most would have left after having their curiosity satisfied or out of sheer embarrassment she couldn't bring herself to leave. Something magnetic was keeping her there, she later would say she didn't leave back then because at the time she may not have known it yet but music was in her blood.

After a while they beckoned her to join them, "Come inside young girl.. do you know how to sing?" They asked. "I can give it a try." She replied. She didn't know it at the time but there were many notable musicians in the room. They started to play a traditional song and taught her the lines. Soon after learning the entire song and she sung it to her first audience, impressing them so much that they offered her to join them in playing a musical number they intended to play at the local nightclub called Bar Quarta, in Mogadishu's District Four. Without hesitation she agreed, which wasn't an easy decision for her to make because she came from a very religiously conservative family.

Eventually the group was invited to play in Hargaysa, so in preparation the musicians had her memorize an entire musical they wrote and intended to perform. Her family still had no idea that she sang at nightclubs but because of the nature of invitation word soon got out. When her family found out her mother beat her. She was able to lock her mother outside the house and call their neighbors for aid. When they came out her mother told them that if she quits the musical she would drop it but if she took part there would be severe consequences. Without many options and still being a minor she had no choice but to respect her mothers wishes so she dropped out of the musical. It wasn't enough to dampen her spirits though because by then she had already memorized several songs by that time.

She was later approached by the same musicians and was asked if she'd keep playing at Bar Quarta and she accepted. She would choose three of her favorite songs out of all the numerous songs she had committed to memory and would sing as their opener, getting paid twenty-five shillings every night. Her mother was staunchly traditional person, but even so she was still a mother so her stance eventually softened with time. Natural to most parental relationships within the Somali culture is one of symbiotic nurturing, one helping the other. She would give all her earnings to her mother as supplemental income. Over the years while working at the night club she was exposed to a cornucopia of musical genres from around the world, from Rock 'N' Roll legends like Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Chubby Checker to Latin American music like Cuba's Cha-Cha-Cha and the Dominican Republic's Merenge to even the high priest of soul himself Ray Charles.

One night while she was playing a set there was a special visitor in the audience. His name was Yusuf Ahmed Boukah and he was the Minister of Information for the Somali Government. A close friend of hers named Ahmed Naji who was a part of the backing band approached the minister and told him that she was a genuine artist and that he should have her signed to Radio Mogadishu. He was willing to give her a shot so he drafted a contract and sent it to Ahmed to deliver it to her. He did as asked and accompanied her to the Radio Mogadishu where she was to have an audition. She sang a number and impressed the officials so much that they signed her on the spot. Making her one of the youngest artists working for the government at only 16 years old, the first of many firsts during the course of her illustrious career.

Her parents grew to accept her position as a singer and artist but it was a begrudged tolerance, they had a distaste for the nightclub scene and it tainted their appreciation for their daughter's talent. They would warn her to be wary of older men and to not let making money become an addiction. They were fearful and had every right to be, the world was a dangerous place for a 16 year old girl. On one uneventful day a momentous occasion occurred, while listening to the radio a familiar voice sprung out from behind the speakers, it came as such a surprise that she felt lightheaded and climbed onto her bed, only to faint from shock. Their daughters voice was serenading the entire country. She had won a singing competition. Her parents were so happy that they prayed for her. "Our girl has been employed as an artist!" they exclaimed and sacrificed cattle in celebration, not only for themselves but for the entire country. In the '60s and '70s women were banned from any air time in Somalia, and the rare few occasions it they did appear radio hosts would alter their names to sound more masculine. She broke the gender barrier and was the first female singer to be aired publicly on National Radio.

Not only did she open the gates to the rest of Somali women who went from being tucked away and under looked to the forefront of popular Somali Music, but she also pioneered a genre of music called Somali Jazz: a blending of traditional Somali music with blues, soul, and jazz ensembles. The genre soon became popular across the country and she was the first rising star of what's now considered the golden age of Somali music. She was primarily a solo artist, but she worked closely with another government entertainment enterprise called Waaberi (New Dawn) one of which was located in Mogadishu, and the other in Hargaysa. Waaberi was a musical/dance/poetry/theater troupe which numbered to over 300 members that would perform at the open podias, the national theater/stadium of Mogadishu, community centers, hotels, and to a lesser extent, discotheques and nightclubs across the country in addition to world tours around the Middle East, China, and Eastern Europe.

(Waaberi, Somalia National Theatre 1960s)

But like with so many others tales of Somali singers, hers too is one marred in tragedy. During the height of her success she sang a song from a play she starred in called "when will you girls marry", her role being a woman who was wronged by a man. She never composed the song or took part crafting the play it was featured in, but was ultimately found to be its unfortunate victim. A vicious rumor was ciculated that she used that song to insult and discredit the President. The government was known for cracking down on artists who they felt attempted to undermine them. She was immediately fired. Due to her popularity the government did not want a public outcry if they were to have her arrested or imprisoned so a libelous rumor was circulated that she shot a pornographic film. She was barred the music industry entirely. She had no place to go or any other profession. She was illiterate at the time and only thing in her possession was her car and a three-wheeled scooter. So she turned her car into a taxi and became the first female Somali taxi driver. She would drive her scooter during the day and her car-turned-taxi at night for the two years she was barred from the industry.

Eventually she was able to regain a foothold in the music industry but any happiness from that would be short lived. She returned from her 1989 tour in Eastern Europe and had one last show in Djibouti before heading back to Modadishu in the late 1990s. She made enough money to send two eldest sons to the UK but she still had five other children with her in the capital. One day she left her children with her father as she went shopping. When she returned she found her all her children locked in a room and her father lying down near the garage. He had been shot by a gun. It was the first time she had seen the distressing effect of a weapon and the gorey reality of a gunshot wound. She took her father to the hospital, left him in the care of her stepmother, and took all her children (eldest child was eleven and the youngest just three years old) and two relatives and fled home, never to return.

She then embarked on a gruesome seven month long journey through East Africa painfully searching for a refuge. They hitched rides on trucks, she placed her children on a donkey as she walked alongside them, rode buses, but mainly walked a distance of well over a thousand miles, through desert and mountains. They fled the capital for Kenya, trekked on through to Ethiopia, re-entered Somalia to make way for Djibouti - were they eventually settled into a refugee camp.

She was now penniless and living in a refugee camp with several hundred others. Although the sum of her experiences took a toll on her physically and spiritually, she never let it break her. She remembered how she couldn't go anywhere in Mogadishu without seniors and children screaming "Maryan! Maryan!", but now wherever she went no one recognized her. She was one of the brightest stars of the golden age, but here she was completely anonymous in a refugee camp. "I was now nothing" she recalled thinking about her experiences. She would sing songs for the others. The camp eventually caught wind and would pay her for her singing but she'd always give the money away to someone else who was in more desperate need. She would walk the streets and scavenge for any means of survival. She'd take wood and use it for firewood at night, she'd find paper and keep it so she could wipe the bottoms of her children. She and her family had lice in their hair and in their clothes. Whenever she went shopping for materials she'd take a jug with her so that she could store any junk she came across, anything that would help her and her family survive. She eventually met with the Danish embassy but faced yet another devastating blow. They told that they were willing to grant her a single visa, meaning she would have to abandon her own family for a chance at life. She told them she could not leave without her children. So they told her she'd have to wait for a deliberation of that possibility. After several agonizing days of waiting, they finally responded and told her she could take her children with her to Denmark.

Like all Somalis who had fled the motherland due to war, wherever they landed they had to deal with culture shock and go through a lengthy adjustment period, and Maryan was no exception. Three months after her arrival she was granted the status of Asylum. She had to deal with the social exclusion of being a foreigner in world she could not actively communicate with; which must have been especially devastating to a once heralded artist. She never gave up on her passion with music however, as many other singers of the golden age have, and continued to find a way to pursue it even in a new country. She met a Guyanese musician and his band and started singing with them before forming her own band. She became of the buzz of the town and flew to Paris to play at a music festival. By coincidence she met a man a named Soren Kjaer Jensen, a Danish arranger who had worked as a freelance photographer in Djbouti having recorded her music from radio broadcasts and personally witnessed her singing in the refugee camp prior, realizing at the time that she was the same woman, her remarkable singing and distinct voice permanently etched into his mind.

He recorded her singing some traditional Somali songs and brought it to Peter Gabriel; the lead singer of British progressive rock band Genesis. Peter was a notable humanitarian and champion of world music. He co-founded WOMAD (World of Music, Arts, and Dance) an international arts festival that champions world music and his own music label Real World Records; that specifically records and produces world music. The success of both ventures helped push world music into the public sphere during the 1990s. Extremely impressed the label asked her two make two albums. So she went to work on making her debut on the label. Her first album was called New Dawn (In reference to Waaberi and what I assume was her musical rebirth) which was recorded with surviving members of the Waaberi troupe with the traditional oud instrumentalization. A compelling piece of Somali music that draws back to an era of Somali music bound in pentatonic tradition of our forebears.

A year later she released her landmark album The Journey. The album was a distinctly modern take with western instrumental influence but yet still faithful to the Somali sound; showcasing drums, guitars, and orchestral sequencers. Throughout her trying odyssey she kept a journal and it provided her with some material to incorporate into her songwriting. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the track called Qax (Refugee): a spiritually grueling nine minute track were she methodically details the hardships and emotions she faced on her long walk to freedom. Where she went, who helped her, those who didn't - all pulling from the diary she kept with her on her seventh month journey through hell. It's a deeply poignant song and strikes a chord with many Somalis that had to flee their homes and abandon their lives during the onset of the civil war. The album was a critical hit and staple of world music. She already had captured the imaginations of the Somali people as a child but now as an adult has found herself a new global audience, traveling around the world once again to perform her music. She currently resides in London, but is proud to call Denmark her home and continues to share her rooted gift with the world.

The story of Maryan Mursal is the story of resilience in the face of insurmountable odds. She personifies the ideals of the unbreakable Somali woman. She's faced very challenge, lived up to every expectation, and never feared to venture into the unknown. She took risks and suffered several downfalls, but refused to let it stop her, unceasingly adapting and re-inventing herself. Whenever I feel like I'm down and feel the pressure of life starting to weigh me down it helps to look at those who came before us and see how they found the strength within themselves to keep going. Maryan Mursal is one of those people, and for that I'm forever grateful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKgYkLVIjns

Here's a live performance of the first she song she made when she created the genre/musical group Somali Jazz. While it's not the original, I'm not sure if that one it exists on record or if it's perhaps buried in the archives of Radio Mogadishu, but this later performance has the added flavor of the groovy 70s funk/soul musical influence.The song is called Waaw! A Somali neologism for the English word wow. One of my favorite things about this performance is how in the intro of the song the lead guitarist uses a guitar effect called the wah wah pedal, which was pioneered by the great Jimi Hendrix, to make his guitar wail the title track before Maryan even starts to sing.