He actually didn't sing about being a refugee much, he sang about his homeland a lot and other times he fused afro-carribbean sounds with Somali and Ethiopian sounds. Others were poetic messaging.
There is a few songs he made that was literal translations of Somali children's songs and folk songs. The chorus in ABC is literally a children song my mom heard a lot growing up in Somalia, she told me after first hearing it.
But yeah you can tell from the very start that , he did not seek fame and but sought music as an outlet for his artistic self expression. When people pressured him into celebrityhood and he caved , he retired soon after feeling that he betrayed himself and moved away from the limelight.
Before all of that K'naan was content with the niche audience he had built up and the local venues he used to perform in. He certainly wasn't a social justice activist.