The April 12 rescue of US Captain Richard Phillips from a group of Somali pirates has been dominating news headlines recently. Artists such as K’Naan have helped provide insight, while also commenting on the issue from a Hip Hop perspective [click to read]. Former Fugees member Pras Michel has added his perspective by filming a documentary on Somali piracy, but it appears his efforts have come at a high cost.
“I’ve been interested in this project since last year over the summer during the [Barack] Obama campaign,”Pras recently told CNN. “It caused some headway, but the campaign kind of superseded that. I felt that was a good place to start telling the story.”
An initial report by Necole Bitchie of GlobalGrind.com cited a post from Pras’ Twitter page where the rapper-turned-filmmaker said he was sick, tired and despondent after nearly being gunned down. It seems the report is true, after Pras reiterated his statements during a recent phone interview with CNN [click to watch].
“We were there last week when the captain got captured,”Pras added. “We were supposed to actually meet with a couple of the pirates, but the capture happened so we had to retreat…there’s a big anti-American sentiment going on right now.”
At press time, Pras had relocated to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia after aborting a meeting with Phillips’ captors, who have since been killed by US forces. Pras’ current condition is unknown, as he sent the following Twitter update 21 hours ago.
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“so i say this with great honor and pleasure farewell my fellow twitter/facebookers til next time and good riddance….. somalia here……”
