Haji Mike

The Living Chiofta

A Celebration of Stories, Songs and Memory

On Wednesday, 30 April 2025, a packed house gathered at Discovery Hall, University of Nicosia, for the official launch of The Living Chiofta, a new book by academic, writer, singer, and radio DJ Mike Hajimichael, aka Haji Mike.

Blurring the lines between storytelling and songcraft, The Living Chiofta – Some Stories That Come Out of Songs is a vibrant and deeply personal collection that reflects a lifetime of artistic exploration. For over forty years, Haji Mike has been telling stories through music, blending poetry, politics, performance and place into his unique creative voice. This new book draws on that legacy with warmth, humour, and cultural insight.

The book comprises thirty chapters, each linked to a different song—some famous, others obscure, and several written by the author himself. Each chapter explores the memory, moment or meaning behind the track, presented in Mike’s signature eclectic style. It opens with “Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)” by the late Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, and concludes with “Wise Men”, a freshly penned track by Mike reflecting on the contradictions of modern power and wisdom.

Along the way, the reader encounters surprising sonic gems like “Waikiki Welcome” by The Waikikis and “Tzatziki” by the late Teddy Kakanda Harrison of Kenya—highlighting music’s everyday charm and global reach. In The Living Chiofta, even something as simple as a Greek food staple becomes a metaphor for how essential music is to life itself.

The launch event featured a series of powerful and heartfelt speeches. Professor Klimis Mastoridis, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, opened the evening, followed by insights from Professor Nicos Trimikliniotis, radio legend Robert Camassa, and Adonis Michael, a University of Nicosia alumnus and founder of Honest Content CY. The evening concluded with live readings and performances by the author himself, including the live debut of “Wise Men” and “Eucalyptus Tree-Menikos”, a tribute to Savvas Menikos.

🎥 Watch highlights from the launch event here:

Big thanks to guest speakers, The Dean of The School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Povfessor Klimis Mastoridis, Professor Nicos Trimikliniotis, Radio Legend Robert Camasa, and Alumni student, Adonis Michael from Honest Content.

A big thanks to all the folks at Mediazone for their amazing work on the night plus all the editing and post production of the event.

We would also like to thanks Stephanos Pissourios for the exceptional sound engineering on the night.

Thanks also due to the the Marketing Department at The University of Nicosia for the support.

Mike Hajimichael with UNiC Communications students

Mike Hajimichael with students from the Department of Communications

Reviews ‘The Living Chiofta

Haji Mike’s Chioftas, From Reggae to Rembetiko: The Cypriot sound of defiance that reshaped linguistic and cultural norms

How Haji Mike’s musical memoir reclaims humour, hybridity, and resistance in a divided Cyprus.

Book: Mike Hajimichael, The Living Chiofta – some stories that come out of songs, Marathovounos Press, 2025

By Nicos Trimikliniotis

This is a short review and personal farewell note of Mike Hajimichael, Head of Communications at UNic SHSS who has served as president of the Lecturers Union at University of Nicosia and Intercollege, is retiring this year. Also known as Haji Mike, is a respected academic, cultural critic, artist, and sociologist based at the University of Nicosia (UNIC) in Cyprus. As a professor in the Department of Communications, Hajimichael has spent decades blending cultural studies, media analysis, and creative practice, especially through his groundbreaking work on music, migration, and identity.

He has been instrumental in shaping interdisciplinary approaches to media, popular culture, and public sociology, drawing on his own lived experience as a diasporic Cypriot and reggae artist. His work is often cited for bridging the academic and artistic worlds, and his classroom has been a space where theory meets practice — and where Bob Marley can appear on a syllabus next to Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall and Antonio Gramsci. Professor Hadjimichael is notably the only non-Jamaican to have delivered a keynote speech on Bob Marley at the annual Bob Marley Lecture in Jamaica, a prestigious event held in honour of the legendary reggae artist’s cultural and political legacy.

Mike Hajimichael, better known as Haji Mike, has long been an iconic figure in the cultural and intellectual landscape of Cyprus and its diaspora. His latest work, The Living Chiofta, is more than a collection of autobiographical stories; it is a profound meditation on identity, migration, creativity, and resistance told through thirty deeply personal, satirical, and often humorous “chioftas”—a Cypriot slang term loosely translated as nonsense, though anything but.

Haji Mike’s stories are rooted in lived experience, blending ethnography, memory, and music into a form of autoethnographic storytelling that resonates with the spirit of both reggae and Cypriot oral tradition. These narratives trace his journey from a North London youth worker and reggae poet to a cultural studies professor and pioneering figure in Cyprus’ hip-hop and spoken word scene. But more than personal history, this book charts a “very Cypriot revolution,” one that takes place at the intersection of music, politics, and social critique.

Born in Cyprus and raised in London, Hajimichael embodies the diasporic “in-betweenness” that has defined much of Cypriot identity over the last century. His reflections on migration, belonging, and accent (“Charlie”-ness) offer biting commentary on nationalism, xenophobia, and postcolonial cultural politics. From performing “Stavroulla” and “Vrakaman” at wine festivals to delivering academic lectures on Bob Marley, Haji Mike has always blurred the lines between cultural production and social activism. His music satirizes social norms—like arranged marriage customs or ethnic stereotyping—while celebrating hybrid, subversive Cypriot identities.

The Living Chiofta is not just a nostalgic look back but a dynamic engagement with Cyprus’ cultural contradictions. It offers a sociology of defiance—mapping a creative resistance that has shaped, and been shaped by, marginal spaces: the Cypriot diaspora in London, underground music scenes, and outsider intellectual networks. In doing so, Hajimichael joins a legacy of radical Cypriot thinkers, all of whom have sought to create public sociology beyond the academic institution.

Blurring the lines between storytelling and songcraft, The Living Chiofta is a vibrant and deeply personal collection that reflects a lifetime of artistic exploration. For over forty years, Haji Mike has been telling stories through music, blending poetry, politics, performance, and place into his unique creative voice. This new book draws on that legacy with warmth, humour, and cultural insight. The book comprises thirty chapters, each linked to a different song—some famous, others obscure, and several written by the author himself. Each chapter explores the memory, moment or meaning behind the track, presented in Mike’s signature eclectic style. It opens with “Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)” by the late Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, and concludes with “Wise Men”, a freshly penned track by Mike reflecting on the contradictions of modern power and wisdom.

Crucially, Hajimichael’s work dismantles the elitism of culture. Drawing from Gramsci’s notion of the organic intellectual, he positions himself as both an academic and an artist who speaks from, and to, the people. His stories are soundtracked by soul, rembetika, reggae, and jazz, and his sociological insights are delivered with rhythm, rhyme, and humour.

In Cyprus—a society fractured by colonial legacies, nationalism, and conflict—Haji Mike’s voice has been a clarion call for critical cultural production. As The Living Chiofta reminds us, culture is not the preserve of the elite, but a space where struggles over identity, power, and justice unfold. Hajimichael may be retiring from institutional academia, but as the old mole of revolution continues burrowing, his chioftas live on—poetic, political, and profoundly Cypriot.

Artists, intellectuals, and activists in real life never retire!

Story by Ian Moss

‘I’ve just finished Haji Mike’s book, The Living Chiofta: Some Stories That Come Out of Songs (2025). I recommend it to anyone that thinks about the songs they listen to.

Mike is a renowned academic, author, DJ and the maker of amazing music. This little book delves into the personal and cultural narratives that songs evoke, offering readers an eclectic and heartfelt journey through music and memory. It was officially launched on April 30, 2025, at the University of Nicosia.

We all have stories that arise from songs. Mike remembers the jukebox in the SU bar at Essex when we were both there, but of course we remember different things. For me it was the time the Clash seemed to be on a loop. Mike remembers his time in the university radio station. I remember the time when we discovered we could override the booth next door and not matter what the DJ thought he was playing, listeners heard the same song over and over again.

We both remember the dancehall and the acts that used to do the university circuit way back then.

So here are a couple of my memories that come out of the songs.

A few years ago (well maybe more) Mike let me know he was going to be promoting his university at the Cypriot Wine Festival at Ally Pally. Of course I went. We made some photos together and I completely ballsed up a couple of videos. At one point I found myself more or less alone on the university stand. Knowing nothing about the University of Nicosia, I did what I always do – I just made things up when asked a question. One lad asked if this was where the ‘tractor song’ man was? Realising he meant Mikes song, World of the Wasteland, I introduced myself as the person who had taken the photographs for the video (which was half true as Sophie was involved as well). While I was signing autographs (well, why not) I looked up to see a long queue had formed waiting to see Mike. I really had no idea how big he was in the Cypriot community!

The first time we went to the Theatro Technis in Camden was a surreal event. Getting lost, we saw a woman who appeared to have live fish in the soles of her shoes. We won the raffle and gained the biggest box of biscuits I’d ever seen. Sophie was dispatched to offer the box around the theatre so it didn’t last long! Years later, when Mike invited me back to see him play there, I thought I’d park the car near a tube station. Now ‘near’ is a relative term and it took me about 45 minutes to walk to the tube station. When I arrived the soundcheck meant I spent half an hour in the street watching Korean girls doing tiktok videos while dodging the London traffic. When we got in a guy came straight up to me, stating, ‘I don’t know you’. He thrust out his hand in welcome and I knew it was going to be a great night. One of the photos I made that night is on the back of Mike’s book. I couldn’t stay till the end, but had a fabulous time, even if I wasn’t sure what was going on for most of it. The next day, I forgot to pay the ULEZ payment and got a £35 fine!

For Mike’s book, the stories come out of the songs. For me the photos come you of the songs, and the stories follow. Well, most of the time. Did I ever mention the day the school bear got arrested?’

The Living Chiofta is more than a book—it’s a cultural mixtape, a memoir in rhythm, and a tribute to the songs that shape who we are. Whether you’re a music lover, storyteller, or simply curious about the links between melody and memory, this book invites you to listen deeply.

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