Chords for FETSUM on music and his Eritrean roots

Now, the Eritrean singer-songwriter Fetsum had a very European upbringing.
He spent time
both in Italy and Germany and like his fellow Eritreans that grew up in the diaspora community,
he chose to express himself through music.
Fetsum plays around with a traditional Eritrean Ethiopian
Gwalior style but still manages to incorporate a bit of soul, a bit of funk and a bit of reggae
into his tunes.
We're going to talk to him in just a moment but right now we'll kick off with
a performance by Fetsum backed up by Leon.
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_ _ _ [N] Come over here.
Let's give him a round of applause.
Surely we can find something like that in the
audience.
Good to see you.
Great to have you on Focus on Africa.
I know most of our viewers would
much rather listen to you than listen to me ask a lot of questions but just take us through the
mental process.
I mean you are from Eritrea through your lineage but you've lived in many
other different parts of the world.
How many different elements do you pull together when
you're you know thinking going through the mental process of coming up with music?
Actually my
biography of course is my roots, it's my solid ground on which I walk when I create something
and I can't deny that but what we always try to create is something of a universal message of
course but because I mean we have us and we have the whole circumstance and surrounding around of
us who give us the stories too you know and we try to make an artistic statement and maybe
transmit a message.
But what I find extraordinary is that ever since I put up the message on on my
Facebook page and on the BBC page that you were coming in we've been getting a lot of enthusiasm
not just from Eritreans but from Ethiopians as well.
You have a song that talks about unity,
you're talking about Dr Martin Luther King at some point.
How important is unity between
peoples who have a connection but are right now divided by politics?
Of course we even have a song
on our album that is called Divided by Thoughts but to be divided by thoughts doesn't mean that
we're divided by nature you know so maybe there were was some turmoil and a large turmoil for
a long time but I always think as a musician my main drive is to unite people.
All right
Fethullah you [C] know what we need to have a longer [Fm] conversation but they're forcing me to wrap [Cm] up
so let's just turn