After years of research and community engagement, St. Olaf College assistant professor of music Rehanna Kheshgi and her students are helping bring Somali songs to life for a new generation by launching a website and hosting a pair of concerts.
With the support of a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, Kheshgi has led creation of a website that features Somali songs recorded by well-known artists and research on the tradition behind the music.
Those songs will be performed in two concerts. “Fanka Soomaalida: An Evening of Somali Songs” is Saturday at the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault and on May 11 in Urness Recital Hall at St. Olaf. Minnesota-based Somali percussionist Harbi Mohamed Kahiye — the sole professional Somali drummer in North America — and student members of Kheshgi’s spring course, Somali Community Engagement through Music, will perform Somali songs from the 1960s to 1980s. Both events are free and open to the public.
The website that Kheshgi’s students have helped develop will be launched at 5 p.m. Saturday just ahead of the first concert. Audiences can explore the website, which features the songs to be performed, through a website scavenger hunt bingo challenge. Prizes will be awarded during the concert, which begins at 7 p.m.
A number of community organizations that Kheshgi has worked with will be on hand before the concert as well, including Waano Learning Center, Diverse Voices Press, Haa Hijabs, and Surad Academy Charter School. “The Rhythm of Somalia” authors Becca Buck and Qorsho Hassan will also promote their new book.
“My goal with this project is to use music as a way to make authentic connections with people and make a difference,” Kheshgi said. “St. Olaf is in an area with a really vibrant Somali community, and this project allows us to contribute to building up the community.”
Community collaboration
Kheshgi began researching Somali music and culture when she was hired in 2018 and worked transform the St. Olaf Music Department’s popular World Music course into a locally grounded learning experience. Kheshgi reached out to performers and organizations in the Twin Cities whose musical traditions were underrepresented in the curriculum.
“I wanted to bring that experience of global music closer to students’ daily experiences in Minnesota,” Kheshgi said.
She began working to establish the foundations of a new course by connecting with organizations such as the Somali Museum of Minnesota, teachers at Faribault High School who work closely with Somali students, and Waano, a Somali-owned after-school tutoring program in Faribault.
During the spring of 2021, Kheshgi conducted a pilot dance workshop series with Somali students at Faribault High School. Somali Museum Dance Troupe director Mohamoud Mohamed led the workshops.
The semester-long Somali Music and Dance course was first offered in the spring of 2022. Students spent the first half of the semester learning about Somali culture — with an emphasis on music and dance — and how this culture has been transformed by members of the Somali diaspora to adapt to their new home in Minnesota. The class had the opportunity to participate in off-campus workshops and discussions with local Somali artists and organizations.
In the fall of 2022 Kheshgi worked with student Gudon Ahmed to explore the question “How can Minnesota-based educational institutions better support Somali students?” Gudon incorporated her own experiences as a student in the Faribault Public Schools system into the research project.
When Kheshgi’s course returned in the spring of 2023, students in the course began holding listening sessions with local Somali community members to determine which songs to include on the website and in performances.
“Women have shared memories of listening to these songs on the radio back in Somalia before the war, and listening to their mothers sing the songs they loved while preparing food,” Kheshgi said.
One woman spoke about how Hibo Nuura’s song “Soo noqo ado nabad ah” (Come back safely) would play on the radio and she would think of her soon-to-be husband who was away in Kenya, praying for his safe return.
Another song, “Ceelbuur,” named after a town in Somalia, was recorded by singer and oud player Salaad Maxamaed Derbi, who lives in Faribault.
“It was only after we found out how much the songs are loved by our local Somali community members that we decided which songs to perform at the concerts this spring,” Kheshgi said.
Those performances will take place under the guidance of Kahiye, who is serving as the artistic director for the two concerts. Kahiye, Kheshgi, and her students will perform seven songs at the concert, and the history and background of those pieces will be featured on the Somali Songs website.
Sayidcali Ahmed is a collaborator on the project who teaches at Surad Academy in Faribault — where the St. Olaf class has held Somali song workshops — and one of the program managers at Waano Learning Center.
He describes one of the website’s most well-known songs, “‘Shimbiryahow Ma Duushaa?’ (Oh bird, do you fly?), as “soul-stirring.”
“In this timeless piece of Somali musical heritage, the protagonist, in her inability to connect with her beloved, seeks solace through a symbolic messenger — a bird — pleading for it to carry her message across the vast distances that separate them,” Ahmed writes. “Beyond its artistic merit, this song stands as a universal ode to the themes of love and separation, resonating through the ages within the rich tapestry of Somali cultural expression.”
This year 12 students in Kheshgi’s course volunteer weekly at the Waano after-school tutoring program. The St. Olaf ESL Club, which Kheshgi advises, also sends weekly volunteers to Waano throughout the school year.
ESL Club President Zoe Esterly said the experience helped sharpen the skills she will need as an English as a second language teacher.
“I loved getting to know students and seeing them progress academically and socially,” she said. “It definitely helped me be creative in finding ways to support each student. Professor Kheshgi’s ability to build relationships with and learn alongside the Somali families and community Waano works with has been a great example for me.”
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