World Cup singer sides with pirates

Fifa, football's world governing body, loves to present the sport as a means of bridging cultural divides. Even so, there are bound to be raised eyebrows that the voice of next year's football World Cup belongs to a Muslim rapper from Somalia who believes its notorious pirates are misunderstood.

His name is K'Naan and the song, Wavin' Flag, will be the anthem of the 2010 finals in South Africa. With lyrics such as "See the champions take the field now/ Unify us, make us feel proud", the track will be played in 150 countries and be conspicuous at every match.

But Canada-based K'Naan, born Kanaan Warsame, has unconventional political views that Coca-Cola, a 2010 sponsor that chose him for its global marketing campaign, may be reluctant to promote.

He has spoken out in defence of Somali pirates, whose activities have included kidnapping British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler and the seizure of the United States-bound supertanker Maran Centaurus.

One of his lyrics asks: "So what do you know about the pirates terrorise the ocean/to never know a simple day without a big commotion."

The child refugee turned rapper argues the pirates have widespread sympathy in his war-torn country because they represent a backlash against Western companies illegally fishing and dumping toxic waste in the Indian Ocean.

"A lot of people don't like me for saying this but I'm in support of the pirates," K'Naan, 31, said earlier this year.

"Massive Western companies would come to Somalia and dump nuclear toxic waste containers on the shore because there was no government controlling the shorelines. So these pirates initially went into the ocean to make them pay for that sort of thing. So they just take everything for ransom. That actually helped us clear our environment."

K'Naan was sent hip-hop tapes from America by his father.

At 8, he fired his first gun and, at 11, blew up half his school when he accidentally detonated a hand grenade; he also saw three of his friends shot dead.

He fled Mogadishu with his mother in 1991, as the country sank into civil war.

K'Naan has collaborated with Nelly Furtado, Mos Def and the Roots, and his three albums have received strong reviews. Rolling Stone described him as someone who "thinks like Bob Marley, flows like Eminem and mixes African music with conscious hip-hop, unabashed pop and even metal".

Asked if Coca-Cola objected to K'Naan's remarks on piracy, K'Naan's manager, Sol Guy, replied: "They understand the context."

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