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Activist Usman calls attention to plight of Sasak women in new song
Rights activist Usman Hamid and his band, The Blackstones, released a new single about the struggle of female Sasak buffalo herders on Lombok Island in commemoration of International Women’s Day on Mar. 8 and National Music Day on Mar. 9.
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This aerial picture taken on Feb. 23, 2019, shows the Mandalika coastal development project, the site of the 2022 MotoGP motorbike championship in Mandalika in the south of Lombok. (AFP/Ali Arsyad)
R
ights activist Usman Hamid and his band, The Blackstones, released a new single about the struggle of female Sasak buffalo herders on Lombok Island in commemoration of International Women’s Day on Mar. 8 and National Music Day on Mar. 9.
The indigenous Sasak community, including the female buffalo herders, has been gradually displaced since 2021 by a tourism project in Mandalika in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), to accommodate the development of the Mandalika International Circuit for motorcycle racing championships.
Officially opened in 2021, the circuit was built on what used to be buffalo wallows. Parks, resorts and hotels were also built in the circuit’s surroundings.
Usman said in a statement that the band worked on the song, titled “Perempuan Gembala” (Women Herders) for a year because of the many stylistic changes the track went through.
“Initially, we opted for a rock and blues genre, just like our previous works. But the sadness of [the buffalo herders] pushed us to try a different style of music,” said Usman, who is the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia.
The lyrics described how these herders were no longer in the vast green Mandalika pasture because of what Usman called “the roaring ambitions of the world”.
Usman said he hoped the song would encourage the government to provide “effective access to recovery for victims [of the Mandalika displacement], including buffalo herders whose rights have been violated”.
