NICOSIA: It “breaks down barriers”: at Nicosiacapital of CyprusMusic helps African asylum seekers to integrate and forget their precarious situation for the duration of a song.

Ibrahim Kamara, a 29-year-old Gambian, arrived on the Mediterranean island five years ago. One morning he sees a djembe in a shop, an African percussion instrument that immediately reminds him of his country of origin.

“He was from Brikama, like me,” Gambia’s second largest city, the musician told AFP, who was offered a similar instrument some time later.

Playing the djembe was then “a breath of fresh air” for Ibrahim, who after arriving on the island lived with a dozen people in a tent in a park in Nicosia, sometimes in the sweltering heat.

“It was really difficult, we didn’t have any food” and “(we had to) wait in line to drink at a fountain,” he recalls.

Adding to the deprivation, he suffered from racism in a country where, according to the Cypriot government, almost 5% of a population of 915,000 are asylum seekers and where 1,500 applications are made every month.

“One Humanity”

“One day when I was standing in line next to someone in the bank, this person walked away from me and put on a mask,” says Ibrahim, still waiting for the answer to his asylum application.

But little by little he managed to connect with the Cypriot people “thanks to the drums,” he says. Djembe means “to bring people together” in Bambara, a language widely spoken in West Africa, he fondly recalls.

He now leads music workshops every Monday after receiving support from the European association Project Phoenix, which since 2018 has helped around ten people in an irregular situation to integrate professionally on the island.

And besides, the earnings from these courses and another odd job enabled him to find a “nice” three-room apartment.

But above all, these workshops allow Cypriots to discover his universe.

Our country needs to “discover its African culture in order to better welcome it,” says Panayiota Constanti, who took drumming lessons during a session in a Nicosia park a year and a half ago.

Just like Ibrahim, Isaac Yossi, a Cameroonian who calls himself “Big Yoss”, also wanted to gather immigrant and Cypriots around a common project. Three years ago he founded the music group Skyband.

Together with six other African asylum seekers, they play in Cypriot restaurants, at weddings or private parties, fusing African rhythms and Greek music to pay homage to “a common humanity”.

“Human being”

Initially skeptical, Cypriots “change their attitude” when “I start singing in Greek,” says Isaac during a rehearsal, acoustic guitar in hand, after playing “Tha Mai Edo” by famous Greek singer Konstantinos Argiros.

In order to integrate, he learned Greek, a language spoken in the southern part of the island, administered by the Cypriot government and recognized by the United Nations. Turkish is the language spoken in the northern part, which was invaded by Turkey in 1974.

The island does not offer enough “opportunities” for migrants so they can show off their talent, laments Maria Demosthenous, piano teacher and manager of Isaac’s band.

“When we think of migrants, we can’t imagine them entertaining us or making good music,” says the 43-year-old Cypriot, who is campaigning for them to perform more on stage.

“We need to see them as people, as the people they were before they became migrants.”