So, with all this insane World Cup fever which has even enveloped my dear North American continent which, outside of
particular ethnic enclaves and socially obligatory little league teams, never had much interest in the sport. But this year? Damn, everyone’s into it. People who probably can’t even tell the difference between a football and a volleyball are following the World Cup, either as sudden ardent fans or just updating their Facebook or twitter with bandwagon statements.
The hype for this World Cup seems to be probably the biggest I’ve ever experienced in my own life. And for that I have to blame Coca Cola, which did an excellent job – as per usual of the soft drink gargantuan – of marketing unity and one of my favourite poets: K’naan.
I will never, ever forgive K’naan for selling out so hardcore. To Coca Cola. NEVER, K’NAAN, NEVER (well, probably. grudges are for doors). I suppose what kills me the most about the Wavin’ Flag sensation – which, before becoming the Coke-flavoured aural addiction that it did, was the official song for the African cup – was the complete stripping of the meaning of the song and how much more relevant the song, in its original context, was to the World Cup.
The song went from one about the aspirations of a child stricken with poverty in a war-torn country to one espousing love for a sport with the most nauseatingly cheesy lyrics ever. In about 7 languages.
Here are some of the international Coked out versions of the song that you most likely have heard:
Now, I’m not going to lie. I still get pretty giddy like a kid whenever I see or hear this sort of stuff. I do, at a very personal level, love it. As much of a complete marketing scheme it is by a pretty evil soft drink company, it still warms my heart a bit and has something beautiful about it.
Now, that 8-year old me aside, time to bring out the unfortunate irony of it all.
These are a selection of the lyrics sung by K’naan in all of the above-posted songs:
Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher
See the champions, take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud
In the streets our head are liftin’, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration it surrounds us, every nations, all around us
Singin forever young, singin songs underneath that sun
Lets rejoice in the beautifull game.
And together at the end of the day.
WE ALL SAY
When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom Just like a wavin’ flag
…
Give you freedom, give you fire, give you reason, take you higher
See the champions, take the field now, unify us, make us feel proud
In the streets our head are liftin’, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration, it surrounds us, every nation, all around us
Singin’ forever young, singin’ songs underneath that sun
Lets rejoice in the beautifull game.
And together at the end of the day.
WE ALL SAY
When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag
The lyrics above are pretty clearly about a sport. They are uplifting, even if pretty damn kiddish simplistic for a brilliantly poetic wordsmith like K’naan.
Now, here is a selection of the original lyrics of the song, which as you’ll notice have a completely different sort of ‘positive’ feel to them:
When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag
When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
Born to a throne, stronger then Rome
A violent prone, poor people zone
But it’s my home, all I have known
Where I got grown, streets we would roam
Out of the darkness, I came the farthest
Among the hardest survivors
Learn from these streets, it can be bleak
Except no defeat, surrender, retreat
So we strugglin’, fightin’ to eat
And we wonderin’, when we’ll be free
So we patiently wait for that fateful day
It’s not far away, but for now we say…
So many wars, settlin’ scores
Bringin’ us promises, leavin’ us poor
I heard ’em say, love is the way
Love is the answer, that’s what they say
But look how they treat us
Make us believers, we fight their battles
Then they deceive us
Tried to control us, they couldn’t hold us
Cuz we just moved forward like Buffalo Soldiers
But we strugglin’, fightin’ to eat
And we wonderin’, when we’ll be free
So we patiently wait for that fateful day
It’s not far away, but for now we say…
While K’naan claimed that he changed the lyrics because Coca Cola wasn’t too cool with the idea of ‘poverty’ and ‘violence’ being a part of their campaign for the World Cup, but at the same time he said he did it in such a way where his integrity as an artist was preserved; “I don’t work for Coke.”
Fair enough, K’naan – the weaksauce lyrics aside, does the irony of the change in your lyrics really prevade you that much?
Wavin’ Flag, in its original form, is about young children growing up in a poverty-stricken, war torn society still holding onto the hope of actually being free. Free from the threat of violence, from the burdens of poverty, the hurt of betrayal. The song references war as well as what seems to be detrimental international interference which deceives an already broken people (unsurprising given K’naan’s strong Somali background and consciousness of the country’s politics) on the basis of salvation.
The message is strong. It is ugly. But what is beautiful about it, as cliche and corny I sound, is that despite all of the struggles, deceit, poverty and violence that overwhelms the people in K’naan’s song, there is still a strong but patient grip on hope for freedom one day.
Dude, that’s awesome.
Now compare that with the Coked out version which is promoting, ultimately, nationalism in a sport which is actually used, often successfully, also for rehabilitation for children in post-conflict zones as well for bridging differences between different ethnic groups (UNOSDP held small games in Rwanda after the genocide, for instance, between Hutu and Tutsi children). Maybe I’m over-intellectualizing it-I probably am- but that’s what struck me first and foremost. How the very thing that has helped tear Africa and many other peoples apart informed the new lyrics to a song which first spoke of the struggles of never-ending war and poverty. The irony struck me.
Had it been any other song, I wouldn’t have cared. But the stripping away of the very real meaning of a beautiful song and having it replaced with something so meaningless and conflict-provoking ..is well ..its irony that just can’t be ignored.
Anyway, whatever.
Don’t even get me started on the Golden Calf worship analogy and Shakira’s Waka Waka: This time for Africa.
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