Fablice Manirakiza isn’t your typical rapper.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, the East African, Burundi-born refugee and Sunshine resident chooses to rap about peace, love and freedom — the things he values most in life.
Making up one side of the Flybz hip-hop duo, Fablice, 19, has performed with his nephew Florene, 15, or G-Storm as he’s known on stage, since arriving in Australia in 2007. It is a way of healing from their harrowing past. Fablice was 11 when he was kidnapped and trained as a child soldier after his parents were killed during the country’s civil war.
“Life in Africa was extremely hard,” he says. “When young people complain here I just think, how could you complain about life here. This is paradise. I was stolen from my home, given a gun, some bullets and taught to fight. ‘I didn’t realise there was a life for me outside of that world.”
Fablice spent more than two years training as a soldier. Shortly before he was to go into battle he escaped after bribing a taxi driver to take him to the Tanzanian border.
But without his parents there to support him he turned to drugs as a way to cope with his pain, until his sister found him. “She took me to the [refugee] camp and we lived there for three years with no power or clean water or sanitation, and barely any food. Our freedom came in our arrival to Australia.”
After arriving here, Fablice and Florene were taught English at a language centre before enrolling in Westall Secondary College, which Florene still attends.
“It was really tough at first,” Fablice says. “We were the only Burundi refugees at school so we kind of stood out. But we have always looked out for each other.”
The duo recently returned from a trip to Africa, and they plan on raising the profile of their homeland through their music.
The teenagers have started performing in schools across the country, sharing their story.
They also performed at last year’s Moomba festival and at the Sydney Opera House.
“We want to educate young Australians,” Fablice says.
“We don’t want to sing about nightclubs and bitches. We want to push our message of peace and chasing your dreams.”
For details of Flybz’ new album, Just Passing Through, email fablicemusic@hotmail.com
