Dengbêji has an important place in the history of the Kurds. The war, destruction, pain, love, heroism and the voice of history in Kurdish society have survived to the present day thanks to the cries of the denbejs.
Dengbeji against the politics of denial and oppression and popular culture is considered one of the most important elements of resistance.
Since the Kurds do not have a deep-rooted written culture, their oral culture is very developed and one of the most important parts of this oral culture is storytelling with dengbeji. This storytelling has been passed down from generation to generation for years.
It is the dengbejs who bring together important developments, historical events and old stories with a lyrical narrative, but unfortunately, the dengbej culture is also facing extinction. In order for this culture not to disappear, especially young people need to support this culture and protect it.
Musician Sarya Ertaş, who works in Ma music, has been working on the dengbeji culture for a long time, taking on the burden of the dengbeji culture, which is mostly male. He is liked by many in terms of his voice and his perspective on music.
Sarya has been growing up with this culture since her childhood, because her elders are dengbej and Sarya grows up with these songs. At the age of 12, Aram begins to study music at the Tigran Cultural Center.
Ertaş states that she idolizes Ayşe Şan and Meryem Xan.
I grew up with my father's songs
Sarya is 23 years old now, but she expresses her relationship with music with these words: "My childhood passed with songs, I learned dengbej from my father when I was very young"
He was a great dengbej and this culture was passed on to my father from him and to me from my father. Over time, I internalized this culture with my music education.
I feel free when I singing Dengbeji
Sarya emphasized that there is a big difference between reading dengbeji and singing, 'When I read dengbeji, I feel free as a bird. Reading dengbeji is an indescribable pleasure for me. It makes me feel very good to read and interpret stories from my own culture and to protect that culture.”
Young Dengbej calls on other young people to protect this culture. He said, "We need to protect this culture as young people, besides that, families also need to give this culture to their children from an early age."
The people welcome me with great enthusiasm.
Ertaş, who usually reads the stories that older people read in the dengbeji format, said that he received very positive reactions from the public and continued his words as follows:
' When I go on stage and read the old phrases in the form of Dengebji, I get very good reactions. The people welcome me with great enthusiasm and this makes them very happy because, as I have said before, we need to protect this culture the most.
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