THIS IS A SHOUT-OUT TO HELP RAISE MONEY TO RECORD MY FIRST E.P. BUT THIS IS NO ORDINARY SHOUT-OUT. I WANT TO RECORD IT IN THE SAHARA DESERT IN THE SAHARAWI REFUGEE CAMPS.
Five years ago, Pandora’s Box was opened. Before I knew it, I was running 21 kilometres through the Sahara Desert to raise money to build a recording studio in a refugee camp. The sound engineers are young Saharawis who've been trained thanks to Studio - Live, a project run by Sandblast. Thanks to them and to you I will be able to launch my music career while at the same time supporting this inspired venture.
100,000 Saharawis have been living in refugee camps for 40 years. 40 years!? What?! Where are they from? Why are they there? Why didn’t I know about this? They haven't been forgotten, to most of us they have never been known.
They are from a country called Western Sahara. They are living in the barren desert because their land is under the oppressive occupation of Morocco, who took it by force when the previous colonisers Spain withdrew in 1975. A sixteen year war ensued causing hundreds of thousands of Saharawis to flee into the Algerian Sahara Desert.
In 1991 a cease-fire was reached and Morocco agreed to hold a Referendum on Self Determination for the Saharawis. It has never been held. Instead, there is now a 2,700km wall that annexes the land Morocco occupies, guarded by the largest minefield on the planet.
The ongoing human rights crisis in Occupied Western Sahara is the only UN Peacekeeping mission which does not monitor human rights.
We don’t know about their plight because the Saharawi people are peaceful. They resist with peaceful patience, but with a growing rage.
THEIR VOICES MUST BE HEARD, THEIR STORY MUST ESCAPE FROM THE DEADENING SILENCE OF THE DESERT.
2015 marks 40 years in exile, 40 years of oppression, and 40 years of the international community doing almost nothing about it. Despite the relentless efforts and remarkable achievements of charities like Sandblast as well as many thousands of activists the world over, we are yet to effect lasting and profound change for the Saharawi people.
By recording this E.P. in the refugee camps, I want to begin a movement in music that reminds us of the rich history of recording as an extraordinary experience, which feeds into more than just the production of a disc. Whose are the voices whispering from between the sleeve notes?
All profits will go to Studio-Live so that more and more Saharawis can become sound engineers who can record the mesmerising music, words, stories and poems of their people.
GIVE SOMEONE A MICROPHONE, AND THEY CAN BE HEARD FOR A MINUTE. GIVE THEM A RECORDING STUDIO, AND THEY CAN BE HEARD FOREVER.
Thanks for reading.
If you would like to receive updates about how the project progresses and how the money gets spent, please send an email to
The owner of this project has not made any updates yet.
