Today I had a P5 student come up to me during a break and very earnestly ask, “Sir, what is music?” English is an often disjointed and trying situation here, so I assumed he was asking what we were going to learn the next day or something. But no, he wanted to know how I define music. He explained that he’d been thinking about it last night and the best way he could explain it would be “organized sound.”
Pretty articulate for a student still learning English.
When pressed, I couldn’t build too well upon that definition. Organized sound (or “organised” as I would write when teaching here) stands strong in describing music to a culture of disorganization. If the analogous leap to cultural chaos is too much for you, consider the literal: I learned today that Uganda was recently ranked as the country with the highest noise pollution. Even in my rural area outside of Jinja-town, constant cries from children, animals, cars, and botas fill the air. Those noises – so many that a few are bound to sound suspicious – augmented by an over active imagination often keep me up throughout the night.
So for my P5 student named Joel (Joel, albeit its different pronunciation, is a very common name here!), music would seem odd in his day full of noise. (The debate between noise and music is one in which I will not explore here – explaining why I did not add that music must be enjoyable organized sound). My real and gritty experience with the culture leads me to attribute music as a redeeming source of consistency and clarity for my students. Buy that thought or not. But if you could understand the life here – time means nothing, children are confused by inconsistent standards in school, creative outlets are nonexistent – you would surely recognize how this music fulfills all of those needs for these children.
In a life of chaos, organized sound.
If I can provide that for these children (and, most importantly, make it sustainable), I’ll consider it a success much greater than a few new songs learned in a distant African village. I hope you will too.