Rohingya Music Online Library
The Rohingya Refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh are the world’s largest, with over one million Rohingya Refugees living in close proximity to each other. Those who fled persecution decades and decades ago typically live in the Kutupalong and Nayapara Registered Camp. The majority of residents are more recent arrivals. Hundreds of thousands came in 2017, fleeing the violence of the Rohingya Genocide in Myanmar (Burma), but tens of thousands of Rohingya continue to arrive even now, in 2024.
For the majority of residents who are more recent arrivals in the Rohingya refugee camps, construction is limited to less-permanent materials like bamboo and plastic.
In the Rohingya ancestral home in the Arakan region of Myanmar (Burma), the Rohingya were much more spread out across many small villages. It was difficult to coordinate musicians to perform together when they lived far apart and didn’t have the internet or other communication tools. For the same reason, it was also hard to promote musical events beyond one’s town. If musicians did try to travel to other towns, they faced inquiries at government checkpoints from security forces who might restrict their movement. Sometimes, they would have to perform for the security forces to prove they were musicians. So, compared to today, the performing ensembles tend to be smaller, and shared with fewer listeners.
Though musicians live much closer now, travel can still be difficult between the different camp zones, even when going to perform at official functions, because officials who give travel permissions do not necessarily recognize them as musicians. The travel can also be difficult because of insecurity in the camps.
Rohingya Refugee musicians are gathered in a musician’s home (pictured). Rohingya Refugees are not allowed to build permanent structures.
Everyone lives very close together, allowing musicians who used to live far away to meet eachother. However, restrictions on movement between zones can make musical collaboration and travel to musical engagements difficult.
When musicians gather for impromptu concerts in a musician’s home, as many as 60 children and adults gather to hear the music. With limited opportunities for work and education, and with people living in close proximity, the impromptu concerts quickly draw crowds of nearby residents listening from near the residence entryway or looking in from outside.
Above are photos are from beautiful residential areas in a small town about a ten-minute ride from Kutupalong Refugee Camp and images of the rice fields near the small town of Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Ukhiya is near the Rohingya refugee camps.
The open space contrasts with the refugee camps, where Rohingya families live very close to one another in small shelters. Rohingya Refugees are not permitted to travel this far from the camp except in cases of emergencies.
“In exile, the younger generations are starting to lose our culture. If we stay for a long time in exile, they will forget their customs, their cultural practices, and the elements that create our Rohingya identity. It everything goes well and we have the opportunity to teach our youth, we must ask them to keep passing on our culture to future generations. We will ask them to continuously advocate about the existence of the Rohingya community in [its ancestral home] in [the state of] Arakan in Myanmar. If everything goes well, our entire community will be praying for the development of Crossing Borders Music.” – Osman
Osman sings the song Oray Halabomora Ay Aijo Fulor Hora with about 30 local children in the refugee camps, who are just off-camera.
This regionally very popular children’s song includes lyrics in Ansolik and Rohingya.
Musical performances quickly gather large audiences in part because Rohingya refugee children have limited opportunities to go to school.