Piroz Zırığ

 

ŞIRNAK- 65-years-old, Nefise Bağdan, who lives in the district of Güçlükonak (Basa) in Şırnak, continues to carry out the dengbej (kurdish ballad) culture, which she has learned from her mother since her childhood. Nefise has 22 unique kurdish ballads that she has found.

 

Dengbej tradition is the oldest oral literature of the Kurdish culture and it’s one of the important symbols of the Kurdish culture. We learn the way of life and tradition of society, from the ballads. To turn everything that is seen, and heard, to the ballad, requires quick-wit and having a strong voice. Dengbej, which sheds light on many love, pain, missing, sigh, and migration, is almost being forgotten in today’s conditions. One of those, who try not to make this tradition forgetten and transmits this Dengbej tradition to the new generations, is 65-year-old and lived in the district Güçlükonak (Basa) in Şırnak, Nefise Bağdan...

 

 'Dengbej tells the way of life of society'

 

The past revives with the strong and touching voices of women, who turns social phenomenons such as love, migration, war, death, mourning, joy into a Dengbej (kurdish ballads), which is transmitted from generation to generation. Nefise, who continues the Dengbej culture that she has learned from her mother since her childhood, says, "I started to Dengbej when I was so young, my mother was saying kurdish ballads, and I learned from her. There was no electricity in our homes. Our family was gathering around the fire that we set in the dark in the evenings, and we were saying kurdish ballad.”

 

'I was always saying near my family'

 

Nefise, who has grew up with laments and ballads of her mother, turns all the events she has seen and experienced in society into 22 kılam (kurdish ballads) by adding her own experiences, emphasizes that the Kurdish culture should not be forgotten. Expressing that she was only saying her ballads near her family at the beginning, Nefise and says that she destroyed the appraised mission to the woman by a erbane (a kind of kurdish music instrument) that her father give her. Saying "I have always said my ballads near my family and I was able to put my words in a harmonious ways. I have started to say the ballads since my early ages and now I am trying to revive our Dengbej culture wherever there is a crowd," Nefise remarked the richness of the Kurdish culture.

 

 'I started to do Dengbej in weddings'

 

Nefise says that she has accompanied her ballads on her erbane. Emphasizing that she sustains doing her Dengbej art in the weddings since the age of 13, Nefise says "My father buy an erbanê for me and then I started to say with the accompaniment of Erbanê. I didn’t take any courses for playing erbanê, I have learnt myself. When I grew up, I started to say ballads in the village weddings or at the ceremony of asking for the girl’s hand in marriage.”

 

'My ballads have taken the color of  pain and the war over time’

 

Nephise, who says that she has been doing Dengbej for many years, has continued to not giving up this art after marriage. Stating that her ballads took the color of pain and war over time, Nefise, goes on as follows: "Of course, the topics of my ballads has changed as time passes by. For instance, formerly, in my ballads I was talking about love in weddings, now my topics turned into to massacres. For instance, I say my ballads on the topics of Roboski massacre or Cizre basements, for Asya, Pakize, Fidan, Sara, Fatma and more beautiful women, murdered by men."

  

I have the '22 original kılam (kurdish ballad)'

 

Saying that she knows more than 300 ballads, Nefise says she has 22 unique ballads belonged to her. Nefise said that she has not able to do Dengbej because her erbane was broken a short time ago. "I have my own 22 ballads, their words musics all belongs to me. These are my original pieces that I have never quote." Last two years ago, I did a new ballad on those who lost their lives in Cizre in self-management resistance, and it was the last time I did ballad” added Nefise.