Rahim Alhaj, a Grammy-nominated musician and political refugee from Iraq, will come to Ohio University tonight to talk about his music, his political activism and his journey to where he is today.
Alhaj, 41, was born in Iraq and first picked up the oud, a short-necked lute, when he was 9.
I was in elementary school and my music teacher brought in an oud and I asked him if I could touch it ... so he gave it to me and I held it exactly right and I played something
Alhaj said. I don't know what the hell I played but he was amazed and he said 'Oh my God
you are a musician.'
Alhaj's music teacher gave him the instrument and immediately began teaching him how to play. Alhaj chose to practice the oud over normal childhood activities.
I explain it like someone who is obsessive compulsive. He locks the door and after a second he will check it again. So you have your instrument
you practice it
and after a second you have to practice again. It is obsession
he said.
The oud, which is more than 5,000 years old, is a tradition in other cultures.
It is one of the precursors to the guitar and is tuned to a quarter tone system as opposed to the half-step tones in western musical systems
said Loren Lybarger, an assistant professor of classics and world religions at OU.
Alhaj is also a political activist, something that was very dangerous because of the dictatorship in Iraq, he said. Despite being aware of the cost, he still felt a responsibility to speak out against Saddam Hussein's regime.
When he was a part of the underground resistance in the 1980s
he composed a song based on a poem that a friend of his wrote
entitled 'Why
' and the song became something of an anthem for the resistant movement
