In the fall 2003 I had the opportunity to visit Nairobi Kenya for two and a half weeks with a music group that I was touring with. During our two weeks there, we traveled around the city of Nairobi, experiencing the sights and sounds of Kenya. We were hosted by a church with a fairly large congregation whose members accompanied and guided us through the city and surrounding areas. We went into Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi and the second largest slum in Africa. We also visited a village of the Maasai tribe. In each location we traveled, we performed our music for the people who first always welcomed us with their own music. Being greeted with music everywhere we went and then sharing our music was an amazing way of introducing two cultures to each other.
I found it very interesting and exciting to find that music played an important role in the lives of the people in Nairobi. I did not think of it then, but in gaining some knowledge of music therapy and reading here in this article about the religious rituals and the relationship of music and healing in the more rural villages (such as the Maasai village), it seems to me that music therapy, though maybe not in a "traditional" sense is already in effect.
Something else that struck me about this article was the discussion of music in special education. The author tells the story of Muthoni and how her music lessons helped her to function in ways that she was not able to prior to her lessons. As I mentioned before, everywhere we went we were greeted with music. Even when we visited the slums, there was song. There is one day I remember in particular, we visited a school within Kibera, and the children sang several songs for us. They were so proud of themselves, you could see the joy in their faces. The thing that made such a huge impression on me, was that these children were able to smile at all. Looking around, seeing where they lived, what that had, or more appropriately, all that they didn't have, and the fact that they were proudly singing is something I will never forget. And now I ask the question, how much was it the music that influenced their lives so that they could smile and enjoy something even is such dire circumstances. Kigunda mentions how music therapy is not yet formally established in Kenya, yet I can't help but wonder, if the use of music was taken further, into a therapeutic form for the children and their families living in the slums, how much more could the lives of these children and their families be transformed and their quality of life improved? I know that music therapy cannot heal the poverty and hunger of these people, but couldn't it improve their state of mind?
Kigunda also discusses how music is used in the hospitals for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients. He states that this was the idea of the patient and how music therapy would be well served in this setting. I find this very interesting because while in one of the slums, we visited and helped out at a free clinic that our host church had set up within the slum. We went there to help organize the clinic as it was a fairly new establishment. We did not plan to perform that day, but upon our arrival and introduction to the volunteers at the clinic they asked us to sing for the people that had come to seek medical attention. I remember distinctly one of the volunteers saying that we could "bring a little bit of joy into the troublesome lives" of the sick individuals with our music.
Reading about the challenges and possible solutions of for implementing formal music therapy and making it available for Kenyans, and having experienced a small taste of what it could do for people, like those I encountered six years ago and still remember to this day, I am hopeful for the expansion of the field of music therapy. Not only for Kenya, but for any country that does not yet have this resource available to them.
Kigunda, B.M. (2005) Music Therapy in Kenya. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy