Meet the world’s newest national anthem aka ‘What the hell’s Mauritania just done?!?’

If you’d asked me yesterday, what the world’s scariest national anthem was, I’d have shot back in a second: Mauritania’s.

It sounds like the Death Star’s just landed and earth’s about to be destroyed:

Why did I write “If you’d asked me yesterday….”? Because this morning, thanks to nationalanthems.info, I learnt they’ve changed it. And worse, they’ve changed it to this:

Yes, it’s an ok anthem – functional – but where’s the threat gone? Where’s the distinctiveness disappeared to? Mauritania’s the world’s last country where slavery effectively exists – surely you want terrifying music to represent a country that does that?

The anthem was written by an Egyptian, Rajih Sami Daoud – a music professor in Cairo who, according to this story, has a degree in “super arts”, whatever that is.

Rajih Sami Daoud, composer of Mauritania’s new anthem

Egyptians have composed many other countries’ anthems, from the UAE’s to Tunisia’s – read my book to learn all about why! – but the choice has gone down very badly in Mauritania, with the country’s most famous blogger calling it “a scandal”. Nice to see nationalism’s growing everywhere.

Mohamed Lemine Ould Cheikh, the country’s minister for culture and handicrafts (they must be a huge part of the local economy), has displayed a surprisingly good knowledge of anthem history to dismiss the complaints: “Musical composition is a technical issue,” he said.

“Most of the national anthems of Arab countries were written by foreigners. Even the American anthem was composed by an Englishman.”

All true, Minister Cheikh, but the real question you should be answering is why you’ve dumped one of the world’s best anthems for this monstrosity!

The words were always meant to be changed, but why they did the music to is beyond me.

😦

The world’s most terrifying national anthem is under threat!

“Be a helper for Godddddd…” Darth sings Mauritania’s national anthem

This is Mauritania’s national anthem. Yes, it makes Mauritania sound terrifying – the sort of country that if you ever visited, you wouldn’t escape. It’s more suitable for the Death Star than an African country.

Which is why it’s fantastic and why it’s worrying to hear it might be changed.

The country’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, is in the middle of altering Mauritania’s constitution, I assume so he can rule FOREVER. As part of this, he also wants to change Mauritania’s national symbols, primarily adding two red stripes to its green flag for some reason (maybe he likes colour contrasts).

But according to this piece (in French), he also wants to overhaul its anthem. The article doesn’t explain how he’ll do that and no one seems to know. Today, I called Mauritanian’s embassy here in the UK and the ambassador said it was, “Only talking now. No ideas!”

So there we go: Mauritania could soon go from having one of the world’s best national anthems, to one of the worst. It could go from having an anthem that calls on all Mauritanians to “walk the path of God and die on it” to one that simply praises their president. Or, er, it could stay as it is. I hope it’s the final option. I may set up a petition!

Update: Argh, they’ve changed it! I am very sad 😦