DUHOK – The power is out most of the time, the internet is weak, and the place is a camp for the displaced in Duhok. Even so, it takes Haji Khidir Qolo no more than half an hour to finish a video. The hardest part, he says, is not the electricity or the internet, but getting the text inside the video to appear at exactly the right moment.

Haji Khidir Qolo, or “Hajko” as his followers know him, is a 26-year-old Yazidi from the district of Sinjar who lives in Khanke camp in Duhok province. He started designing in 2021 as a hobby, and today he makes clips that bring together football and Yazidi songs. One of his designs, about the French star Kylian Mbappé, passed 3.7 million views, and his TikTok account had more than 55,000 followers at the time of this interview. For all of it, he has nothing but a mobile phone.

The Yazidis are an Iraqi religious minority with an ancient history, concentrated in Sinjar and in the Sheikhan district and the temple of Lalish in Duhok. In August 2014, following the attack on Sinjar, hundreds of thousands of them were displaced toward the Kurdistan Region, and a large number remain in the camps of Duhok to this day. Among them an entire generation has grown up away from Sinjar, and it is that generation Hajko makes his clips for.

Speaking to us, Hajko does not talk about politics or about numbers. He talks about a song that reminds him of his origins, about a feast when red flowers used to bloom everywhere, and about sayings and knowledge he is afraid will be lost because no one ever wrote them down.

The interview

The interview was conducted in writing. These are our questions and his answers as we received them.

1. To start, introduce yourself. Who is Haji Khidir Qolo? And what did you hope to become when you were young?

I am Haji Khidir Qolo, known as Hajko, a young Yazidi man from Sinjar. When I was small I dreamed of becoming a footballer.

2. What is the finest memory you still carry of Sinjar?

The most beautiful memory I have kept from Sinjar is playing with my childhood friends.

3. How does your day go now?

I spend my day looking after my family and working to provide for them, and in whatever time is left, when I am a little free, I design and post.

4. What pushed you to start making these designs? Was it an idea that came suddenly, or something you had been thinking about for a while?

I have loved design for a long time. It was a passion and a hobby for me, and I started in 2021.

5. How long does a single video take you? And what tires you most in the work, doing all of this on one phone?

A single video takes me about half an hour. The hardest thing in it is the text inside the video, because it has to appear at exactly the right moment. As for the conditions, all of them are exhausting: the internet is weak, the place is a camp and life is hard, and the electricity is always cut.

6. Which Yazidi song do you always come back to? And why that one in particular?

The song “Sharfadin,” because it reminds me of my religion, my culture and my origins.

7. Many people know very little about the Yazidis. If you wanted to introduce them to your community in your own words, what would you tell them?

The Yazidis are a peaceful religious minority with very ancient roots and history.

8. What misconception about the Yazidis do you wish would change? And what is the one thing you wish people knew about you that they do not?

We are among the earliest monotheists. We worship God alone and we hold nature sacred, and we are not infidels as some believe. In our belief, God alone holds authority, and no human being has power over the life of another. No one holds the decision to end another person’s life, because life is given by God, and He alone can take it or let it continue.

9. You have feasts and occasions that many people do not know about. Describe one of them for us as it used to be lived in Sinjar. And what has it become today?

I love the feast of Chaharshanbe Suri, because we used to gather with loved ones and friends and celebrate together, and red flowers would bloom everywhere in Sinjar. Today, living in the camp does not give that beautiful feeling, and we do not meet everyone we love, because we have been separated: some emigrated because of the circumstances, some are still missing to this day, and some died or were killed after the ISIS attack on Sinjar in August 2014.

10. The people of Sinjar today are scattered across many places. What do you think still holds them together?

Yazidi identity is the foundation of Sinjari society, and it is what brings us together.

11. What are you afraid the new generation will forget?

I am afraid that Yazidi sayings and knowledge will be forgotten, because they are not written down. They pass from one generation to the next by word of mouth.

12. What went through your mind when the Mbappé video passed 3.7 million views?

When the Mbappé video spread and reached 3.7 million views, it was a beautiful and wonderful feeling, because it made me feel I was getting closer and closer to success.

(Watch the video at this link)

13. Tell us about a message from a follower that stayed with you.

One follower once told me: “I know you will reach everything you hope for on social media, and you will achieve your dream on this platform.”

14. Finally, what message would you like to send to the Yazidis and the people of Sinjar?

Stay steadfast and hold on to faith and hope. However long these conditions last, relief is near.

One phone, and a bridge to Sinjar

What Hajko does does not look like much from the outside: short clips, an old song, a shot of a footballer, and text that lands on time. But at its core it is an act of preservation. The community he speaks about carries an oral tradition that was never written down, passed between generations through story and song, and then scattered between camps and exile. In a situation like that, anyone who keeps a song, a custom or a memory alive becomes a link in a chain that has not yet broken.

And when he says he is afraid that Yazidi sayings and knowledge will be forgotten because no one wrote them down, he is not speaking only about himself, but about an entire generation of Sinjaris born or raised outside it, who have known their homeland only through a screen. Between that generation and Sinjar, the phone of a young man in Khanke camp has become one of the few remaining bridges.

You can follow Hajko on TikTok at @haji_k_q