‘That never happened’: Rapper K’naan testifies in his own defence at sexual assault trial in Quebec City

WARNING: This article contains detailed testimony of sexual assault.

One of Canada’s most successful rappers, K’naan, testified in his own defence Thursday that he never sexually assaulted a woman while she slept in his Quebec City hotel room in 2010.

“That never happened. There was not a single ambiguous moment about consent with her. It never happened,” he said.

K’naan, whose real name is Keinan Abdi Warsame, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman in her 20s in a room at the Hilton hotel in July 2010, when he was performing at the Festival d’été de Québec.

The 48-year-old is best known for his 2009 global hit Wavin’ Flag.

During his testimony, Warsame corroborated some elements of the alleged victim’s testimony: that the two spent a nice evening together before an argument about not having a condom and then going to sleep, and that they had consensual sex the following morning.

But he said the alleged victim’s assertion that he sexually assaulted her in the middle of the night while she slept was not true.

‘Modern fairy tale’

Earlier this week the alleged victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, testified that after getting to know Warsame online, he invited her to attend his concert in Quebec and spend time with him.

She said she was expecting it would be possible they would have sexual intercourse.

“For me the idea that I was going there with the expectation of a sexual relationship is not the issue,” she told the court Wednesday.

“It’s what actually happened that is the issue,” she said.

She said the night began as what she described as “a modern fairy tale.”

She said Warsame brought her backstage to his concert, held her hand, and was very nice to her before they returned to his hotel room.

“Fairy tales don’t always end happily ever after,” she said.

Warsame also testified that the night began positively.

“I thought she was really cool and intellectually stimulating and fun,” he said.

Turning point

The point where their stories start to diverge is the conversation about not having a condom.

The alleged victim testified that her request to try to find a condom made Warsame “enormously angry”.

“That’s when everything changed. It was night and day,” she testified on Wednesday.

She said Warsame had what she called a tantrum.

In his testimony, Warsame denied having a tantrum, but he did say he became annoyed when she said one of her concerns about not having a condom was sexually transmitted diseases, and that she noted he had just returned from Africa.

“That’s when it devolved. The conversation became pretty ugly then,” Warsame testified.

“There was some unspoken thing that we were talking about AIDS, and that shocking stereotype for me was a big turnoff, ” he said.

“It felt like a gut-punch and a betrayal and it soured everything.”

Under cross-examination, Warsame admitted the alleged victim never mentioned AIDS when asking him about Africa.

“But the insinuation was there,” he said. 

“When you say Africa, you’re isolating it into some kind of fearsome disease. That’s why the mention was so much more hurtful than anything else,” Warsame said.

Both Warsame and the alleged victim testified that after this conversation, the mood was heavy and they eventually fell asleep.

Warsame denies assault

The alleged victim testified earlier in the week that she was awakened later in the night when she felt Warsame having sexual intercourse with her.

“He raped me while I was sleeping. He took posession of my body,” she said, adding she felt paralyzed and confused.

Warsame said this never happened, and that he slept through the night and was awakened in the morning by the alleged victim silently intiating sex with him.

In her testimony, the alleged victim admitted she did initiate consensual sex with Warsame in the morning, which she described as an effort to repair what happened, and to take back her humanity.

“She came on top of me and we had sex. It was OK,” Warsame testified, but said that he still felt sour about the night before.

The two saw each other again in Montreal two weeks later, and had some limited contact by email and text message in the years that followed.

Consent video

In 2015, the alleged victim sent Warsame a link to a video she had come across on YouTube about sexual consent.

“It was out of nowhere,” Warsame said.

“I just remember looking at it and being like, ‘Why are you sending me that?'” he said.

Under cross-examination, Warsame was asked why he didn’t ask the alleged victim about it.

“Because it was absurd. I don’t see a consent issue at all to talk about,” he said. “She initiated the sex and that’s it.”

Testimony has now wrapped in the case and closing arguments are set for April 1.