All this week we've been dipping into Minnesota's ethnic music scene through a series called "Notes from Home." Today, we focus on Oromo music. After fleeing Ethiopia to escape persecution, more Oromo people have landed in Minnesota than any other place in the world. The music they've brought with them pulsates with joy. Minnesota Public Radio's Chris Roberts reports.
CHRIS ROBERTS: At a large Oromo wedding, on the east side of St. Paul, singer Mohammed Sheka and his pre-programmed electronic keyboard has dozens of revelers right where he wants them. They're hopping in unison to one of his songs, which they all seem to know.
MOHAMMED SHEKA: [SINGING IN OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: Sheka's life is typical for many Oromo refugees. Back in Oromia, he was a popular performer with several CDs. Then, the Ethiopian government clamped down.
MOHAMMED SHEKA: I was imprisoned for two years in Ethiopia because my first CD and the second-- all of my CDs, they have a song for freedom.
CHRIS ROBERTS: Like many who hope Oromia will become a country in its own right, Sheka fled to Nairobi and then to Minneapolis. He now works nine hours a day doing deliveries. He sings on the side and is recording another CD to sell back home. Ask him to describe the Oromo sound, and he'll say, there's many.
MOHAMMED SHEKA: Oromo people, we have 14 states. We have the same thing, about 14 cultural music.
CHRIS ROBERTS: So for each state, there's a different kind of music?
MOHAMMED SHEKA: Different kind of music and a different kind of rhythm.
[SINGING IN OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: While Sheka is very versatile as a singer, he's more in the pop realm. Another distinctive brand of Oromo music can be heard every Sunday morning at Our Redeemer Lutheran church in Minneapolis.
SPEAKER: [SPEAKING OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: The entire congregation is on its feet as a minister, her eyes closed and hands in the air, passionately preaches salvation. The keyboard player begins an Oromo Lutheran hymn, and the sanctuary takes on the air of a revival. The music is bouncy and jubilant, the melodies soar. Nearly everyone is singing and swaying.
CONGREGATION: [SINGING IN OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: All this lively worship makes the traditional Scandinavian Lutheran service seem even more staid and subdued. Yet, Scandinavians can take some credit for Oromo faith, 8% of the Oromo are Lutherans because of the Scandinavian missionary influence.
Allison Adrian is a budding ethnomusicologist at the University of Minnesota. Adrian says, the joyfulness in Oromo Lutheran music contradicts the tragic situation the Oromo find themselves in.
ALLISON ADRIAN: We have people here worshiping whose, their families, they're separated. And they might not know where some of their family is in Oromia. They have a history of human rights abuses. But yet, they're just so absolutely happy to be free here, to be free to use their own language, to be free to have cultural events, to be free to be Oromo here in the Twin Cities, and I think that really comes through in their music.
WOMAN: [SINGING IN OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: Traditionally, Oromo music incorporates a variety of instruments. There's the krar, which is in the lute family, a one-stringed fiddle called the masenqo, and frame drums which are played with the hands. But there are so few skilled performers in America and Canada. Oromo musicians, like their Somali counterparts, are opting for the electronic keyboard.
While the instrumentation has gotten a technological makeover, Allison Adrian says the music still expresses a yearning for home.
ALLISON ADRIAN: A lot of themes in their music have to do with feelings about their homeland, nostalgia about Oromia, wanting to go back but not being able to. And I feel like that unifies Oromo music across styles and genres.
CHOIR: [SINGING IN OROMO]
CHRIS ROBERTS: Adrian says Oromo Lutherans aren't necessarily evangelical Christians, but they are trying to set an example.
ALLISON ADRIAN: Some of them feel as if they're here to show a lot of Americans their faith.
CHRIS ROBERTS: Adrian says upon arriving in the US, many of the Oromo expected to find a devoutly Christian nation. When they saw that wasn't the case, Adrian says some decided it was their calling to make Americans understand how lucky they are to speak their own language, live in relative safety, and express their own faith. I'm Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News.
CHOIR: [SINGING IN OROMO]
Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.