Constanze Letsch reports from Diyarbakır and says that the Dengbej's (a Kurdish word for professional reciters of epics, storytellers) have a lot to sing about in an atmosphere of increasing violence and political arrests as the Kurdish issue is still unresolved. Dengbejs sing when a family member is ill or killed--that is, when the pain is too much to bear.
Letsch states how the once silenced Kurdish storytellers, especially after the 1980 military coup when Kurdish was criminalized, started singing again recently in Diyarbakır.
However, she adds, "not everyone believes the dengbej are now free: 'We are allowed to sing, but only the songs the government likes to hear,' says one singer. Among themselves, they sometimes sing about the Kurdish struggle, but never on TV or on stage. 'You are allowed to sing about love, but not about politics. But the essence of the art of dengbej is supposed to express all the sorrows and the worries of the Kurdish people."
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However, she adds, "not everyone believes the dengbej are now free: 'We are allowed to sing, but only the songs the government likes to hear,' says one singer. Among themselves, they sometimes sing about the Kurdish struggle, but never on TV or on stage. 'You are allowed to sing about love, but not about politics. But the essence of the art of dengbej is supposed to express all the sorrows and the worries of the Kurdish people."
To read the full article in the Guardian, please visit:
