{"id":3652276,"uri":"https://api.kexp.org/v2/plays/3652276/?format=json","airdate":"2026-05-08T21:15:12-07:00","show":66665,"show_uri":"https://api.kexp.org/v2/shows/66665/?format=json","image_uri":"https://coverartarchive.org/release/ed5f0c75-af2d-4e52-bfca-64564088f10d/20333243483-500.jpg","thumbnail_uri":"https://coverartarchive.org/release/ed5f0c75-af2d-4e52-bfca-64564088f10d/20333243483-250.jpg","song":"African Unity","track_id":null,"recording_id":"561c2796-8555-49d6-8805-b0c9d10ae551","artist":"Kamal Keila","artist_ids":["97554bed-b9ad-4f03-9f99-2ce916158ac6"],"album":"Muslims and Christians","release_id":null,"release_group_id":"559c482c-ebb8-46b0-abc5-e6f539596d22","labels":[],"label_ids":[],"release_date":"2018-07-06","rotation_status":null,"is_local":false,"is_request":false,"is_live":false,"comment":"Kamal Keila also had messages to share. “It’s not just about dancing and having fun,” he states in the liner notes. “There are lessons to give.” On the mid-tempo Muslims and Christians that gives the album its title, he sings, “Some of us are Muslims, some of us are Christians, some live in the south, some live in the north. We’re a nation; Sudan is a nation.” The country was torn apart for several decades by a civil war between the Muslim north and the Christian and animist south, until the declaration of independence of South Sudan in 2011. Kamal Keila lived through this history, sometimes censored, sometimes close to power. “The relationship between the regime and music was never completely back and white,” explains Jannis Stürtz. “Even after 1989, when the Islamists took power, music was never banned. However, artists were persecuted, imprisoned, exiled for what they had said in their songs previously. Kamal was close to Gaafar Nimeiry (Prime Minister from 1969 to 1985 - Ed.) who often took him on long trips. With the arrival of Omar el-Béchir (the general who introduced an Islamic legal code in 1989 - Ed.), his message was no longer in line with the regime, which hurt his career, However, Kamal remained a symbol of unity, and el-Béchir asked him to sing at the signing of the peace treaty (in 2005 - Ed.). After the concert, however, several members of the delegation came to tell him the he did not represent Sudan. That’s a little story that gives an insight of the regime’s nuanced relationship with music in general and with Kamal in particular. ”“Sudan at the heart of Africa,” sang Kamal Keila, who declared pan-African dreams. Today, it’s not sure that his message is getting through to the protagonists in an extremely tense region. Maybe he consoles himself knowing that his music is finally reaching our ears, thanks to Habibi Funk.","location":1,"location_name":"Default","play_type":"trackplay"}