LONDON —
Homayoun Sakhi closes his eyes and runs his fingers along the long neck of his
wooden instrument encrusted with mother-of-pearl.
اضافة اعلان
“I feel like I have
my Afghanistan in my hand,” says Sakhi, one of the world’s most renowned
performers on the country’s national instrument, the rubab.
He is jet-lagged
after flying in from California to perform at London’s Barbican concert hall to
raise funds for emergency medicine and education in his homeland.
Along with the
growing humanitarian crisis,
Afghanistan’s rich musical culture is under threat
as the Taliban have banned music since their return to power last year.
Widely shared
videos have shown them smashing and burning instruments. Musicians have fled
the country.
“Right now we don’t
have music in Afghanistan,” says Sakhi.
“It’s really
difficult because there’s no concerts, there’s no music, and (for musicians)
it’s very difficult to be without any money and without a job.
“That’s why they’re
trying to go somewhere to play.”
The Taliban
clampdown is a repeat of the hardliners’ previous time in power between 1996
and 2001, when they banned music as sinful, under a strict interpretation of
Islamic law.
The rubab dates
back thousands of years and has enjoyed a revival thanks to Sakhi, who is known
as a musical innovator and has developed a more modern playing style.
BBC Music Magazine
called him “one of the greatest performers” on the instrument.
Born in Kabul, he
left Afghanistan with his family in 1992, in the chaotic aftermath of the
Soviet withdrawal, moving to Pakistan.
He later settled in
Fremont,
California, which is known for its large Afghan community, and has
launched an academy teaching the rubab.
“Each time I’m
playing, I’m home, I feel like I’m in Afghanistan”, he says.
‘Cannot ban this’
Music including pop was allowed a free rein during the past two decades in
Afghanistan, with local television even showing a “Pop Idol” talent contest
equivalent.
But following the
Taliban’s return to power, traditional Afghan music now relies on devotees overseas.
The “Songs of Hope”
concert at the Barbican last Saturday was organized by Afghanistan
International TV.
The London-based
channel was set up by Volant media company, which also runs a Persian-language
channel for Iranians.
It will screen a
documentary about the concert in March.
In the first half,
Sakhi plays classical Afghan pieces, followed by folk music that gets the
audience clapping along.
He performs with
UK-based virtuoso Shahbaz Hussain on tabla and Iranian musician
Adib Rostami on
the kamancheh, a bowed string instrument.
“I had the idea to
do the concert -- that was the only thing I can do as a musician”, said
Rostami, one of the event’s organizers.
“As we know, now
the music is banned in Afghanistan — they cannot ban this from the people
around the world.”
“We have to try as
musicians, as music lovers, to find a way to keep this cultural heritage for
the future”.
The current
situation for musicians under the Taliban is “back in the 1990s”, he says.
“Again, you cannot
be a musician in Afghanistan.
“As far as I know,
most of the musicians... are trying to get out of the country.”
A group of students
and teachers from a national music school in Kabul arrived as refugees in
Portugal in December, after the Taliban’s takeover earlier last year.
Afghanistan’s first all-female orchestra, Zohra, set up in
2016 and named after a Persian goddess of music, has moved to Qatar.
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