The national song is one of the tools for preserving national consciousness as well as building it (or rebuilding it) if it has been destroyed.
Therefore, a popular song in the language of the native people, regardless of who wrote and performed it, sometimes contributes to the formation of identity more and does so faster (remember the Red Rue festivals in Ukraine, etc.) than tens of thousands of pages of history books or political appeals.
It is no coincidence that the attention of imperial centres has always been vigilant to the culture of the enslaved nations. Among the categories of the repressed, artists of national cultures and writers have always occupied a special place. Some survived and “got used to” the occupation. But they knew: if the creations of your soul and thoughts were published abroad, then this is how lucky you are. You can wake up famous, or you can wake up an enemy of the people…
It seems that this is also starting to happen around the Bashkir song “Khomai” and its performer Adel Shaikhitdinova.
Khomai is the daughter of Samrau, the king of heaven, the king of birds, and his wife, the Sun. She was bathed in the living water of Yanshishme and knew the way to the source of living water, kept the secret of Akbuzat, and the diamond sword. She is the main heroine along with Ural-Batyr in this epic. Khomai is a bird of happiness. Many nations believe that if Khomai flies and a person falls into the shadow of her wing, then she will be happy, and therefore free.
To fall into the shadow of a bird and become free – that’s the main idea behind the song! This is what caused its simply insane popularity. In a short time, the song was translated into many languages, primarily the languages of the Turkic people. It caused a surge of interest among the Bashkirs in their own past and identity. Even those who had already begun to forget their native language began to return to it. And as we know from historical experience, behind cultural identity comes a political programme and the idea of independence.
Therefore, immediately after the triumphant spread of the song, a struggle began around it. Because a song is a song, but how one responds to it is a key question.
Now, on social networks, various Z-bloggers are starting to demand that the singer “more clearly define her position on the SVO”( the special military operation – ed.) and “re-shoot the video with the Russian tricolor so that everyone can understand whose side the singer is on” and other desires, which, in their opinion, should “tie” this song to the “SVO”, because otherwise it can become one of the tools for rebuilding the identity of not only the Bashkirs, but also other nations enslaved by Moscow.
Yes, contrary to the wishes of those who promoted this clip on Apple Music, perhaps even of the performers themselves, its ethnographic motifs and appeal to the national epic begin to threaten the integrity of the empire. That is precisely why the struggle to re-emphasize the song begins.
Where this struggle will lead, what feelings this talented work will evoke in the thoughts and souls of the Bashkirs and other prisoners of the “prison of nations”, time and a happy coincidence will show.
To fall into the shadow of the bird is great luck and the last hope.
