Kîne Em
Şivan Perwer’s great question: who are we?
- Type
- Anthem of identity
- Year
- 1970s
- Associated with
- Şivan Perwer
Kîne Em (Who Are We?) is one of Şivan Perwer’s defining works: a long, surging song built on the poetry of Cegerxwîn that turns a history lesson into an anthem. Question after question, it names what was taken and what remains, and answers with the self-assertion of a people. For the generations who grew up with cassettes smuggled across borders, Kîne Em functioned as schooling in identity as much as music. It remains a fixture of his concerts and of Kurdish cultural memory. As a modern, protected work, its full text is not reproduced here; this page documents its context and meaning.
Lyrics and translations for this song are being prepared. We publish texts only after editorial verification and a copyright check: traditional and public-domain works in full, modern protected works as context and meaning only.