INTERVIEW
Shamir Chants Down Babylon
From the killing fields of Uganda to the sweet morning air of North Portland, a young
reggae artist speaks truth to power.

by SACHA WEBLEY
243-2122

Kemira "Shamir" Sengendo was 6 years old when his father, a political dissident in Uganda, was killed. After fleeing to Kenya, Shamir saw his mother imprisoned in a refugee camp and for years was forced to fend for himself. When his mother was released, Shamir and his family left Africa and, after moving from country to country, eventually received political asylum in the United States.

Today, it's surprising not only that Shamir is alive to tell his story but that, at 21, he is already telling it so well. Fusing dancehall, roots reggae and hip-hop, the Portland singer weaves the truth-telling tradition of artists like Burning Spear, Bob Marley and Public Enemy with tales of his own experiences.

Recently, Willamette Week talked with Shamir in his North Portland home about his early life and his musical present.

Willamette Week: Why did you and your family go to Kenya?

Shamir: Well, if I'd stayed back in Uganda, I never would have been alive at this time. It was hard political-wise because of my father's stuff there. In Uganda, you gotta be careful of everything you say. So, obviously, in the sense of living in the world, I've had to deal with stuff since I was like 9 years old: I've been in a couple of wars back in Africa--not fighting, but I saw people being killed. The worst collisions and the best collisions.

Do you try to recycle those political issues that your father was fighting for into the music you now make?

Yes. That's the only thing I know--to fight for those who cannot be heard. People speak and people want to be set free from things like racial discrimination, poverty and wars they have nothing to do with. In order for us to make a better world, I think people gotta be aware of stuff like that, so if I don't talk about it, I feel like I'm not actually writing music, that I'm writing a joke. Music's supposed to send a message.

Speaking of racial discrimination, why'd you end up settling in Portland, a town that has its own strange set of racial problems?

I think that there are some real nice people here and some people that need to learn some things. It comes back to the experiences of a man. I don't blame those who dislike white people or dislike black people or dislike Asian people. I don't blame them because they don't know any better. But that's been my job so far, to change those minds. It's good to really find out what that black man has to say, what that white man has to say. All of us are created by God, and whether you call him Jah or Buddha or Jesus or Allah, you should remember that with all the people we talk to, we're getting a message from a higher power.

What's your oldest memory?

Well, the baddest memory of my life when I was a kid was when I didn't see my mom for four years when she was in jail. The best memory of my youth was when my grandmother would talk to me about how good life can be--today, I am simply happy that she told me those things then because I'm just experiencing them now: how life is good, not in the sense that I'm a millionaire or make a lot of money, but because it's so beautiful to get up in the morning and breathe and see different people and learn. And the possibility that I'm gonna get up tomorrow morning and I might do a concert that will change somebody's mind about everything.

Do you really feel, when you're onstage, that things are changing in your audience?

Yeah, because whenever I perform, there's something that happens. When I talk in the microphone, you see the people just pay attention. And I don't think that that's something I have. Somebody speaks out of my body. Opening up for Israel Vibration and Burning Spear or even when I do small shows, there's something that just comes over me. And when I speak from the heart, people listen.

What musician have you opened for that you've felt you jibed with most powerfully?

Burning Spear. I respect the man simply because he has stayed true to his message for a long time. And the only thing's that hard when you're not playing typical popular music is to get the world to really listen. In popular music, people like to hear so much about sex but not about what might be good for the future. For what he has done, he is the person I look up to. Whenever I play with him, it's like going to school.