I was searching for information on Nabi Misdaq, the author of Afghanistan: Political Frailty and Foreign Interference when I came across his rather interesting son. Misdaq is a British-trained anthropologist from Paktia province who was the head of BBC Pashto for about 20 years. I found that out with a quick google search, but I also came across someone called “Y. Misdaq AKA Yoshi.” I thought “huh?”

I turns out that Dr. Misdaq’s son is an Afghan-British musician and multimedia artist (according to wikipedia). A review of his 2004 album had this to say:

“Yoshi comes from a world where Sergio Leone, the RZA, anti-establishment politics, Middle Eastern strife, ambient Hip Hop, Akira Kurosawa and potent skunk exist in harmony…Managing to sound both ominous and chilled at the same time, this is obviously a deeply personal record about skewed perspectives, about looking at the UK from it’s marginal areas and wondering whether you’re a part of it.”

Pic of Y. Misdaq AKA Yoshi:

Misdaq, J.R. has published a book title Pieces of a Paki which you can see him talk about in a video here. The cover is plain white with a badly drawn figure in the middle. A voice off to the side says  “You’re a Paki!” The figure says “No, I’m not!” The reply is “Yes, you are!”

You can listen to “Yusuf” Misdaq’s music on his myspace page.

Elsewhere you can visit his personal website and an arts website he runs called Nefisa.

I like that Yoshi’s book is £6.00 and Dr. Misdaq’s book is $160. Damn the academic press business.