Once We Had a Home

The Rohingya people are among the most persecuted on the planet. In 1982, they were driven from their ancestral homes by the Myanmar government. Today, around one million Rohingya live in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Producer Ian Brennan led a team into the camp, not an easy feat given the violence and harsh living conditions there. They set about recording musicians using a mandolin and a mop-bucket drum; women were contacted as well but declined to perform. The refugees sing about two topics: the horror and impact of the genocide that drove them to the camp, and love songs. These are often harrowing and they are sung with great passion. The song titles reveal terrors, such as ‘My Body Aches for Home’ and ‘The Soldiers Burned Our Mosque (They Stole Our Souls)’ and bittersweet love as on ‘I Want To Marry Amira, from the Camp (If I Cannot, I’ll Hang Myself)’. The final song, the saddest of all, is ‘My Family Prays For Us to Come Home (Here We Have No Life At All)’.