Music Therapy in Africa: Seeds and Songs
Introduction: Music Therapy in Africa
The seed of Music Therapy has been planted in African soil. Some water the seed, some are not convinced that it is necessary to have such a seed in this particular garden and others are unaware that the seed has been planted at all. My vision is that music therapy grows, flourishes and produces much fruit in Africa. My vision for Voices is that it plays a key role in that growth.
Africa needs increased knowledge and resources in order for this growth to take place and Voices provides both in many respects. Having said that Voices may speak to Africa, Africa also has much to say. We need this space to speak about how music therapy may need to be here, why it may need to be here and what forms it might take. We are faced with many unanswered (some seemingly "unanswerable") questions concerning, for example, the relationship between music therapy and traditional music healing practices; the history of subordination of African people and culture and a resulting suspicion (by some) of music therapy as a "Western import"; the role of music therapists on a continent racked by poverty, malnutrition and terminal illness; and how to facilitate useful and fruitful multidisciplinary relationships and discussions. We have unique issues and we also have issues that resonate with others around the world.
It is vital that this journal presents a diverse range of 'voices' from the African continent. More Africans need to speak about music therapy and musical healing practices - for our own development as a continent and to contribute to the growth of international music therapy practice, theory, discussion and debate.
An Example of Music Therapy Work in South Africa: A Response to HIV/AIDS
There are a number of issues on the African continent which demand our attention. One of these is the crisis of HIV/AIDS. What do we have to offer and how do we need to rethink our work to maximize our effectiveness and relevance as African music therapists? These are questions which I am currently asking myself as I establish a Music Therapy project at an HIV/AIDS hospice and orphanage in Johannesburg. This project locates itself firmly in Community Music Therapy (Stige 2003, 2004b; Pavlicevic and Ansdell 2004) practice as this appears most appropriate in light of the context in which the project will take place and the resources available.
In order to gain a deeper understanding of the institution, I interviewed a number of staff members and patients. I would like to highlight four themes in the remainder of this paper which emerged in these interviews, namely community, 'safe spaces', opportunities to give and finally, as a means of concluding, vitality.
Community
Through stigma, discrimination and institutionalisation the patients and orphans at this hospice have been isolated from their communities. A teacher at the pre-primary school on the premises stated that visitors view the residents as "animals in a zoo." She expressed her desire that the patients and orphans be treated as "people," as part of the wider community. She commented that community musicians facilitating music making with the adults and children could help them to feel "part of this world." Zharinova-Sanderson (2004, p. 242) makes a similar statement, explaining that in music therapy clients can "reconnect with their ability to be a creative part of a community." Although the institution itself forms a circumstantial community (Ansdell, 2002), the Childcare Co-ordinator reminded me, "this is a village that is not a village." Staff members spoke of music offering the possibility of bringing them together and giving them a tool through which they could demonstrate to the patients that they truly cared for them.
The majority of people I interviewed at the hospice had not heard of music therapy and I had not met with them previously or briefed them on the nature of the project I want to establish. Yet, each of them spoke of music having the potential to create a sense of togetherness both within the hospice and between people in the hospice and in the broader community.
"Safe Spaces"
Each interviewee spoke of groups of musicians that had visited, promised to return and were never seen or heard from again. This created a deep disillusionment with community members and groups offering musical experiences and relationships. At a previous interview at another orphanage the staff expressed their desire only for volunteers who were committed to visiting the children on a regular basis. They explained that they were not prepared to allow the children to experience further abandonment.
Staff members at the HIV/AIDS hospice in Johannesburg spoke of orphaned children who had experienced severe trauma but who did not have a "safe space" or a "safe medium" through which to express and process their emotions and experiences. Although private individual music therapy with certain children at this hospice may be immensely beneficial it struck me that the staff were not necessarily asking for this - or asking for this only. They were asking for safe, reliable musical relationships - safety within community, not necessarily safety within a 'therapeutic relationship' behind closed doors. Ansdell (2002) reminds us that the relevance of degree of communal or individual response varies according to culture and type of illnesses.
Opportunities to Give
The Childcare Co-ordinator highlighted that music making would provide the children with an opportunity to give. She explained that the children in this institution were used to receiving but not giving. Performing for other patients would be a way for them to feel as if they had contributed to the life of another. Music making in Africa is not a solitary activity. In light of the debate around performance in music therapy I concur with Zharinova-Sanderson's (2004, p. 243) caution that if we restrict ourselves to private individual music therapy sessions only we may neglect the clients "musical cultural resources." Stige (2004a) reminds us that performance is dialogic and interactive. Performance is capable of developing community not merely reflecting it.
Vitality
Death opposes music making. At this particular hospice numerous musical endeavours, a choir, for example, have been initiated. The choir ceased to meet, rehearse, and perform when a key participant died. A smaller choral group was then started. Another member died and the choir stopped meeting once again. Music making celebrates life. There is a continual battle however, when surrounded by death, to keep celebrating and to keep making music. Perhaps music therapy can help fight the battle.
As I write this article I am experiencing a period of mourning together with close friends who lost their very young son a few days ago. In African culture one does not grieve alone. From the day of his sudden death we gathered at the family's home to mourn with them. The young boy was Zulu. Typically, Zulu family members would have gathered, leaving their own homes instantly to join the immediate family. Merely hours after the child's death, his home was filled with Zulu, Shona, Pedi, English, Afrikaans, Portuguese, and American people. The little boy's name means "progress" and that is indeed what we witnessed: black and white people mourning together as family for the loss of a Zulu child.
Three hours after the tragedy occurred, the parents, their family, and their friends began to sing. And we have been singing for six days. When it is difficult to breath we sing. As we thank God for his life we sing. As we cry we sing. It has been one of the most profound experiences of my life. We sing English songs, Zulu songs and songs in a language that my English ears cannot even identify, but that seems irrelevant. The singing powerfully joins us together. It allows us to carry one another with our voices. One often feels helpless in the darkness of another's loss. What to say? What to do? This time I sang with his mother and his father. Instead of lowering our heads as we stood next to his coffin, we sang and danced in a circle in gratitude for the 22 months that we knew him. Instead of saying 'death opposes music making' I now see that music making opposes death. Africa indeed has a lot to say about music making and a lot to say to music therapy.
References
Ansdell, Gary (2002). Community music therapy and the winds of change: A discussion paper. In: Kenny, Carolyn and Stige, Brynjulf (Eds.). Contemporary Voices of Music Therapy: Communication, Culture and Community. Oslo: Unipub.
Pavlicevic, Mercédès and Ansdell, Gary (Eds.) (2004). Community Music Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Stige, Brynjulf (2003). Elaborations toward a Notion of Community Music Therapy. Oslo: Unipub.
Stige, Brynjulf (2004a). Performance of Community [online]. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved December 30, 2004 from http://www.voices.no/columnist/colstige160204.html
Stige, Brynjulf (2004b). On Defining Community Music Therapy [online]. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Retrieved December 30, 2004 from http://www.voices.no/discussions/discm4_05.html
Zharinova-Sanderson, Oksana (2004). Promoting integration and socio-cultural change: Community music therapy with traumatised refugees in Berlin. In: Pavlicevic, Mercédès and Ansdell, Gary (Eds.). Community Music Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
