The sound of resistance

Global Voices' September Spotlight on protest music traces a line from first-century Gaulish bards through anti-slavery hymns to a 2026 controversy in Kyrgyzstan, where a famed tokmo akyn, Aaly Tutkuchev, says he was pulled from an independence day concert lineup after central authorities intervened.

Local officials in Talas say Tutkuchev was cut for a change in the concert's 'conceptual direction,' not censorship, though Tutkuchev has twice before used festival stages to sing about court corruption and the jailing of activists. He says he has grown used to being crossed off government lists and hopes only not to be crossed off the public's affections.

The piece surveys centuries of sung grievance against monarchs, military commanders and MPs, framing today's social media era as the latest amplifier for an old habit of putting rulers' failings to a tune they can't easily ban.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.