Jordan: A Hope of Change Mediated through Rap, Breakdance and Storytelling

The 4th of February 30 young people ended the third round of shows with a great performance in the largest center of culture in Zarqa, King Abdallah the Second Center for Culture. The 30 participants have participated in setting up the show, writing the lyrics and the texts. They are supported by a partnership by Jordanian and Danish organizations embracing the opportunity of letting youth voices being heard through alternative media.

One of the eldest boys grips the microphone in the middle of the stage. “Welcome! We hope that everyone can hear us and see us!” he says, and the show starts for real. The welcome seems a bit trivial, but maybe it is not…

Spinning dancers, hooting and whistling from the audience and from the bystanders, the show reaches the edge of the stage when the tempo is peaking, when rotaries are intensified and when the refrain of the rap are delivered, but this is not just about performance and show. The 30 participants have participated in setting up the show, writing the lyrics and the texts. They are supported by a partnership of Jordanian and Danish organizations embracing the opportunity of letting youth voices being heard through alternative media.

Hear us, see us!

The youth of Zarqa, where the performance is, but also the youth of Amman and Jordan in general a hardly ever heard in their own language – that is the language of youth. Catchy rimes and hip hop beats cannot be misjudged, but unskilled in Arabic and especially in the local slang, it is hard to evaluate how tough, outspoken and critical the boys allow themselves to be. But judged from the faces: This is cool!   

”The song is about how I have changed and how I still want to change me and the society I am living in. Of course I hope that somebody will listen to our text’s and that we in some way can change others life to” says Ismael Dawud, who has participated in the show. The teacher in rap, Sami Shaaqfeh, explains how he and the boys have worked on critical reflection on the society they live in.

The show, carried out through rap, stand up and storytelling, is about the daily life problem’s of the boys. A repeated theme is the dissatisfaction with how their teachers are treating them in school, another theme is the relation between parents and kids and love also steals some minutes.  

Room to unfold and reflect

Sami has tried to do a carrier as a rap musician in Jordan. “It is hard” he says. “People here are not use to that kind of music…” On the seats are mostly children and mothers – a few of them are covered in niqab. The performance is in Zarqa – on of the most conservative areas north east of Amman, and the Jordanian organizers from CDC (Community Development Committee) do not hide the fact of a mixed receipt of the earlier shows. That is, the show has received both opposition and applause from the local society and local media.

The next big project is a tour this summer around in Jordan, where the show should include more participants and more spread in the form of Iraqi participants and hopefully also girls. Even though the project has met some opposition there is no doubt about the importance of this alternative room - underlined by the fact that the participants have taken the initiative to extra rehearsals and more performances during this spring.

The project started last summer and functions as a partnership between four organizations. C:ONTACT, the international section of the Theatre of Betty Nansen in Copenhagen and CDC from the Palestinian refugee camp in Zarqa agreed to work on this interesting project using the expertise of Betty Nansen Theatre and the community anchorage of the CDC. This partnership was facilitated and supported by DCCD (Danish Center for Culture and Development) and by MS ActionAid Denmark which is supporting the project through monitoring and contact to English Media, in addition to DAI funding.