From Beirut to their current home, Prague, Rust – the duo of Petra Hawi and Hany Manja – have created an anthem and reflection on life far away from home. The video came out this week, at a moment when I know many, many diasporas are watching crises unfolding in parallel across the world.
And so while this song is sung in Arabic, while it carries that Lebanese – Czech experience at a deeply painful moment, I think it’ll speak to anyone separated by distance from loved ones. I first met Petra in Beirut at a performance of the two. Hany is one of the co-founders of the Beirut Synthesizer Center, and speaking of Czech-Lebanon connections, the synth library model in Beirut was inspired by the wonderful Synth Library Prague. It’s a great reminder of how Eastern Europe and Middle East can collaborate. (Sorry, SWANA, MENA, whatever, it’s all relative – “east” connection sounds better here.)
And it’s all based on a lullaby.
*DIASPORA*captures the emotional experience of living far from home, carrying the weight of memories and emotions on repeat. The chorus features a lullaby Petra’s parents used to sing to her as a child, adding a nostalgic connection to her roots.
*دياسبورا* بتحكي عن الغربة وكل المشاعر المتضاربة اللي بيعيشها الانسان بعيد عن بيته. بتصير الذكريات ولحظات الحنين والشوق ترافق كل خطوة. بمذهب الاغنية منسمع تهويدة كانو أهلها لبترا يغنولها ياها هي وصغيرة.
Here in Berlin, we have every imaginable diaspora involved in every crisis, every conflict, every occupation – occupier and occupied. And many of these groups are away from home because they’ve been forced out. Those tensions often go ignored in comfortable, consensus-driven western narratives.
But yeah – that connection to childhood and home? The horror of watching nightmares happen somewhere else, and feeling powerless? That’s pretty universal, especially with our planet in serious strife. I wish I had anything I could say that could be a comfort, but I suppose that’s why we make music.
Rust sent over some notes on their current release, especially for those of us who don’t speak Arabic. I read these on the Refuge Worldwide broadcast I did last week; in addition to “Diaspora” here are the other two track notes:
Fi makan
In this first song, we are imagining a place with no borders and no restrictions. A place without the smell of blood and gunpowder. A place unseen under the sun’s gaze.
Kawkab X
The song reflects the complete collapse of Planet X, where trust in the possibility of repairing it and rebuilding its values and policies has been lost. So we think it should be burned with all of its corrupt systems so that we can start building from scratch a world that resonates with us.
I would be remiss if I mentioned Hany and Beirut Synthesizer Center and didn’t include a link to the latest fundraising efforts by the center with Tunefork Studios. I’ll also say: it’s not enough. The fundraising is important, and I know the organizers are asking us to keep spreading the word. But we can’t fundraise for basic essentials while our governments (USA and Germany here) continue exporting the weapons that are creating the problem. So I do encourage you to contact elected officials if you’re in one of those countries, if you feel the same.
If you’re in Europe and want to host Rust in your town and get all this musical goodness, the duo are planning a fundraising tour this fall. You can reach out via their Instagram profile. They will presumably then reenact these travel scenes.
From better times, here’s the time Rust came on as guests on my show for Refuge Worldwide: