Orey kalabhumora (Oh, the black bee)

The RCMC adopts an inclusive definition of Rohingya music. We record folk music as well as acculturated forms shared with us by Rohingya refugee musicians in the Cox’s Bazar camps, including Islamic qawali and shez songs adapted from Urdu or Hindi, and transcultural folk songs found in both the Arakan and the Chittagong regions. Enabled by technology and pressured by displacement, today’s Rohingya musicians are skilled, intercultural music-makers, embracing music across regional and national borders, and making it their own.