Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Music tells us we shall overcome

Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran said, "Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife." If any group has experienced strife over the last several hundred years, it is the people of Africa.
9716col-chidiac.31_222019.jpg
n this March 21, 1965 file photo, Dr. Martin Luther King, foreground row, fifth from right, waves as marchers stream across the Alabama River on the first of a five day, 50-mile march to the state capitol at Montgomery, Ala.

Lebanese-American writer Kahlil Gibran said, "Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife."

If any group has experienced strife over the last several hundred years, it is the people of Africa. First having a significant portion of their population dragged into slavery and then having their territory pillaged by European colonials. One can wonder how they have managed to keep hope alive and it is significant to note the role that music has played in this.

African-American historian Jerome LeDoux points out how during slave times people would go to church and then gather at Congo Square in New Orleans on Sundays. There they would sing and dance, remembering their African roots. They also reflected on what they had learned in church, strongly identifying with the people of Israel enduring slavery in Egypt and the suffering of Jesus Christ. People sang "let my people go" and "nobody knows the trouble I've seen." LeDoux calls this music the "holy blues." Secular musicians heard it and basically changed the words and created the blues. This then evolved into jazz, rock 'n roll and more modern gospel music.

One song which came out of this tradition, Down by the Riverside, first became popular around the time of the Civil War and it remains well known today.

In 2009, an organization called Playing for Change released their version of Down by the Riverside, featuring musicians from Serbia, Portugal, Brazil, Los Angeles, France, Japan, and of course New Orleans and the Congo. What this organization accomplishes by recording artists with differing styles from all over the world, singing and playing in harmony, is a testimony not only to the technical skill of the Playing for Change team but of the amazing gift music is to the world.

Playing in harmony is perhaps the most perfect example of the highest degree of human cooperation, what author Stephen Covey refers to as synergy. Each musician and singer has to not only have confidence in their own abilities but also listen attentively to the others, thus creating a sound that no one person could produce.

Because Playing for Change draws artists from all over the globe who joyfully share their time and talent, the songs they produce have a richness that perhaps has never been created before. Down by the Riverside is only one example of their amazing work, the profits from which are used to improve the quality of life in impoverished regions of the world.

As I reflect on the topic of the power of music, another story also comes to mind as well. It is more than 50 years since the huge rallies of Dr. Martin Luther King. The anthem of the civil rights movement was also from the "holy blues" tradition, We Shall Overcome. Masses of people sang this, and continue to sing, in beautiful harmony.

It is as if all of these songs of the "holy blues" contain a very deep and profound truth which we all know. Horrible crimes have been committed. There is tremendous injustice in the world, not only in Africa and the United States but in every country. Yet this music demonstrates that we can create harmony, and when we do so we are living the highest essence of our humanity.

People have not only survived, we have been able to thrive despite horrendous wrongs being institutionalized, and it is music which has touched our hearts and given us hope. We know that better times are coming.

Thus the entire world joins Dr. King and sings in beautiful harmony, "deep in my heart, I do believe that we shall overcome one day."

Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com