June 20 marks World Refugee Day. In this context, “Dounana”, a song released more than a year ago, emerges as a furious cry against neocolonialism and the destruction of peoples.
The piece was created in November 2024 by Syrian-born artist Siba Alkhiami, who lives in Berlin, in collaboration with German producer Monkyman (Felix Spitta). A year and a half later, in April 2026, the author published a message about the song’s continued relevance, triggering an unexpected wave of virality on social media.
The global attention it has received can be explained by the fact that the song condenses the anger and pain of peoples subjected to structural violence, offering a narrative that places the political responsibility of Western powers at its center.
The song originated in a geopolitical context marked by military escalation and social displacement. In statements reported by international media outlets, the artist explained that she felt compelled to write a poem “without an intellectual filter” out of the despair of witnessing a genocide through screens.
The lyrics denounce cultural annihilation, the demonization of resistance in the Global South, and the role of the West in international conflicts. The following excerpt illustrates the message:
Eradicate our roots
Demolish our homes
Criminalize our existence
Falsify our origins
Separate our loved ones
And massacre our children
Take our blood for granted
And demonize our revolutionaries
[…] Steal our knowledge
Keep our people in ignorance
And torture our spirits
And deny us our rights
Colonize our countries
And appoint our rulers
Appropriate our resources
And burn our treesBut who would you be without us?
[…] Bomb our roofs
Call us liars
And watch our pain
And belittle our agony
Ignore our tears
And close our eyes
Mutilate our faces
And deny our feelings
Destroy our dreams
[…] But who would you be without us?
You would not be without us
You will not be without us
Its message serves as a direct critique of the neocolonial policies of Western powers that attack countries in the Global South (such as the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq), impose client regimes (Operation Ajax, a covert operation by U.S. and British intelligence services that, motivated by the nationalization of oil, brought about regime change in Iran in 1953), finance terrorism (Operation Cyclone, through which the United States supported Islamist rebels opposing Afghanistan’s socialist government during the 1980s, many of whom later formed the basis of Al-Qaeda), and fuel internal fragmentation in Global South countries through interference programs that prolong conflicts without offering real solutions (Operation Timber Sycamore, a covert CIA program that between 2013 and 2017 supplied weapons to Syrian rebel groups considered moderate, contributing to the strengthening of jihadist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS, the weakening of Kurdish forces, and the prolongation of the war, according to various U.S. officials). These dynamics have contributed to the destabilization of numerous territories and generated migration flows that are now treated as a threat in the very countries that enabled those earlier interventions.
In this sense, Siba Alkhiami’s work encapsulates the tension between a Europe (an unconditional ally of the United States) that presents itself as a refuge and the structural responsibility of its states for the conditions that force thousands of people to flee. The artist specifically criticized German media outlets, accusing them of “pushing the propaganda agenda of a government that is not even their own” instead of reporting the facts with integrity.
As stated on its Bandcamp page, all proceeds from the song will be donated to humanitarian initiatives in the Global South. “Dounana” demonstrates how cultural production can become an instrument for denouncing structural inequality and the human consequences of neocolonialism.