Somalia: Songs

Somalia Dept: The fox, they say, once had an elegant walk, for which the other animals loved him. One day, he saw a prophet striding along and decided to improve on what was already beautiful. He set out walking but could not match the prophet s gait. Worse, he forgot his own. So he was left with the unremarkable way the fox walks today, according to The Star. They have a point. A musician s songs are not just his own; he shares them with an audience. Still, Somalia is where my life and poetry began. It is my walk. And I don t want to lose it. Or stifle it. Or censor it in the name of marketing and here is a story about fame. I heard it first as a fable in Somalia, before living it out in America. Right now, the pressures of the music industry encourage me to change the walk of my songs. When I write from the deepest part of my heart, my advisers say, I remind people too much of Somalia, which I escaped as a boy. My audience is in America, so my songs should reflect the land where I have chosen to live and work. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.