I'm in the middle of the Nile in a city called Aswan in southern Egypt with a friend and two Nubian guys on a Felouka -- a small sailboat -- and we're all singing All in One together.
There's a couple artists who are really popular in Egypt like Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dion, but Bob Marley hadn't come up on my Egyptian music radar until I met the Nubian people. On my first day in Aswan, my friends and I saw a house with a Bob Marley flag waving in the wind. We looked at each other somewhat puzzled and dazed (I think the daze was just because we hadn't gotten any sleep the night before because we spent it in a train). Anyways, there was a guy standing outside the house, and we just started talking with him -- it's really normal to just start a conversation with anyone and anywhere in Egypt. We asked him about Bob Marley and he told us that all Nubian people love Bob Marley.
We talked to him for a while and some of his friends came over and talked with us. After a while, one of his friends asks us if he can ask one question: what are tears? Because he wanted to understand the song No Woman, No Cry.
The next day, I happened to be on a Felouka with a friend and two Nubians. These guys were really outgoing and very talented with languages. One spoke French, English and Arabic fluently and he was only 25 years old (he also had a decent vocabulary of what some might consider inappropriate phrases in Italian and German). A little while into the Felouka ride, I asked them if they liked Bob Marley. They love Bob Marley too. One of them got out his cell phone and started playing All in One, and we all sang along. They knew almost every song, and told me that Bob Marley is extremely popular amongst the Nubian people because 1. he's laid back 2. most of them speak english and can understand the meaning of the song (you have to is you want to work in tourism and tourism is the supermajority of the commerce in Aswan)
As I was quizzing them on what Bob Marley songs they knew, I asked do you know No Woman, No Cry. The response: "Every man knows that song. But, we don't have that problem here. Come out with us on the boat tomorrow, and we'll sail with four women."
