South Sudanese rapper leads fight against racist narratives in Melbourne

The rapper is determined to change the way his adopted country, Australia, sees race. He says keeping a cultural connection to his South Sudanese roots is important, even though he considers himself Australian.

Debirioun was speaking to SBS News as part of the media outlet’s My Australia series. “You still know you’re different, and at times when it’s like ‘who am I, why am I hearing stuff?’ You know where your house is, you know who your tribe is, you know who your people are.”

Debirioun was born in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya during the Second Sudanese Civil War. He got out in 2004, but his parents didn’t. “When the war happened we got separated,” he says. “I don’t know what happened so my grandma raised me.”

It was his people he felt he had to speak out for when the so-called ‘African gangs’ crisis started dominating headlines in Australia in 2018. Debirioun says the way media reported on the story was inaccurate and the consequences on the South Sudanese-Australian community were harsh and long-lasting.

“It affects people’s employability, access to jobs, kids going to school … people come up to them and say, ‘Did you see the news last night, what’s up with your people?’”

He then organised a protest in response to the media’s bias and led hundreds of people as they chanted “enough is enough” through Melbourne's Docklands.

Jemal Ahmet from the Centre for Multicultural Youth told SBS News that voices like Debirioun's are crucial when it comes to the success of Australia’s migrant communities.

“Young people, especially people from multicultural backgrounds, are often talked about and talked to,” he said. “He’s able to say ‘enough is enough’ around those things, but he does it in a way that unifies people. He presents a solution as well as challenges that negativity.”

Debirioun has equipped young people to tell their own truth through a music program for multicultural youth in Melbourne’s west. Working with fellow artist rockstar Bo-La and producer Simba Andrews, he mentors teenagers, teaching them to write, record and perform their own compositions.

The 21-year-old says the very act of bringing young people together is creating bridges across cultural divides. “We can create dialogue and it’s our way of solving things that are happening, why wouldn’t we do it?”

Read the full SBS News report here.