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You are here: Home › Members › EM News › Videos › Genjer Genjer (sung by Tika)
You are here: Home › Members › EM News › Videos › Genjer Genjer (sung by Tika)
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Genjer Genjer (sung by Tika)

by EM News — last modified May 16, 2012 09:06 AM
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Despite Soeharto's propaganda, 'Genjer Genjer' is actually not the anthem of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), but about the hardship of lives during the Japanese occupation where food was scarce and genjer vegetable became an option for food. It was widely banned, but now it's making a comeback. Tika is an Indonesian folk singer who often performs the song with her group, Tika and the Dissidents. The writer of the song itself, Muhammad Arief, was killed for being a PKI sympathiser,

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Produced Sep 30, 2010

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In an article in The Jakarta Post, Tika spoke of performing the beautiful song:

"Its lyrics have no political connotations whatsoever. The reason I love performing it is to melt the stigma that the song is scary, to sort of *descaralize' it, in a way, because the more you are slowly exposed to something you fear, the less you fear it.

"So contrary to some people's beliefs, I am not trying to resurrect the PKI, I am not a communist. I don't believe in any organized ideologies but I do believe that is a beautiful song, and it deserves to be sung."

After Indonesia's independence, Genjer Genjer was often played on the radio. The two most famous performers of the song were Lilis Suryani and Bing Slamet. After the 1965 coup, the Indonesian Armed Forces banned the song, claiming that PKI related groups, Gerwani and Pemuda Rakyat sang this song while they killed the top Indonesian generals.

Copyright 2009, by the Contributing Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

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Filed under: , ,
Anonymous says:
Oct 01, 2010 03:18 PM
I saw your very own Nova singing the same song. Have you got a video of that? Or how about the lyrics?
Anonymous says:
Oct 02, 2010 09:56 PM
This song is also about connections (maybe solidarity) between women.... genjer is harvested by one woman, sold in the market, bought by another woman, cooked, and eaten with rice and meat... and the story is sung by another woman.... so life goes one. beautiful song! delicious vegetable!
alimander
alimander says:
Oct 02, 2010 09:57 PM
also a good story about the song is here http://novaruth.blogspot.com/[…]/yang-tak-ingin-dilupakan-gendjer.html
yulianto suharyono
yulianto suharyono says:
Jan 09, 2011 07:18 PM
kata orang lagu ini adalah lagu partai komunis indonesia.
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