The sons of Genghis Khan

We read an article in the ARA, a very interesting one, where it is explained where we come from through our chromosomes. In Asia —it says— "8% of all chromosomes have the same origin, as they are men descended from Genghis Khan", the first Mongol emperor, who boasted of having more than a thousand children. It is understood, of course, that he did not have to take them all to football matches and human tower events every weekend.

Invariably, whenever I read news like this, about Genghis Khan, I remember the legendary group from the eighties that opened the door to the breath of Catalan rock: Duble Buble. The authors of Clava't, with lyrics (magnificent and unforgettable) by Maria Jaén, also had a song dedicated to the children of Genghis Khan. The group had two singers, the female one, Mari Martínez, and the male one, Jaume Coromina. He, for example, sang Cristina, she, Clava't and also this one. I think Quim Monzó was a co-author of these lyrics, but I am not entirely sure. In any case, at local festivals, we would sing it at the top of our lungs. “When Europe is a distant point, when America is not on the map, when no one remembers Africa, the world will fall into your hands, Genghis Khan..." Because it wasn’t “Africa”, it was “African”.

How I would love just once, just once and that’s it, a Duble Buble concert. A crowd of nostalgic people, in a medium-sized venue, turning on the mobile phones we never lit up for them, because they didn’t exist, dressed as we were back then, in colorful clothes, thinking that that music was a step toward normality, and that one day we would have it. It was the eighties and everything seemed ready to be done and entirely possible.