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CulturePeru

Rapping to revive the ancient Quechua language

Anne Herrberg
October 27, 2021

A young Peruvian musician singing and rapping about current topics like taking care of the earth in the ancient Quechua language is among a growing number of people driving a revival for indigenous culture. Once the lingua franca in the Inca empire, Quechua is sitll spoken by several million people, but has long been considered backward in mainstream society. Thats changing now.

https://p.dw.com/p/42FL4

In the South American Andes, indigenous people have long been considered backward, and the more than 40 indigenous languages spoken there are in danger of dying out. That also used to be the case for the Quechua language in Peru, which was once widely used in the Inca empire until the Spanish colonization. But in recent years, Quechua has been seeing a revival among young people - and that’s thanks to musicians and social media. Young performers like Renata Flores for instance now sing about topics like the climate crisis in Quechua.

(Reporter: Anne Herrberg/ presenter: Alistair Walsh)