{"id":53925,"date":"2017-03-13T14:15:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T18:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=53925"},"modified":"2022-10-04T16:06:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T20:06:28","slug":"currents-of-change","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2017\/currents-of-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Currents of Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar news-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">March 13, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3>Eleven countries, 400 million people, 4,300 miles of river\u201450 years of political discord. Can the music of the Nile Project bring harmony to a struggling region?<\/h3>\n<h4>By Suki Casanave | Photo by Matjaz Kacicnik<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Blood and water.<\/strong> It was the summer of 2013, and the words ricocheted through press accounts, as tensions in Africa\u2019s Nile Basin reached an all-time high and the media trumpeted the possibility of war. For generations, conflict had been brewing along the Nile, where 11 countries\u2014more than 400 million people\u2014depend on the world\u2019s longest river for drinking water, electricity, irrigation, and transportation. And now a massive new dam\u2014the largest on the continent\u2014was under way in Ethiopia near the river\u2019s source. Egypt, a desert country at the northern\u00a0end of the river, entirely dependent on the Nile for water, saw the dam as a threat to national security. \u201cWe will defend each drop of Nile water with our blood if necessary,\u201d Egypt\u2019s former president Mohamed Morsi threatened, putting the world on alert and an entire region on edge.<\/p>\n<p>For Mina Girgis, an ethnomusicologist who grew up in Egypt and now runs a world music school in San Francisco, the crisis had a special urgency. For two years, he had been hard at work establishing a new band, raising money and recruiting musicians from every country in the Nile Basin. Now, with the threat of violence rumbling in the background, Girgis was convinced his band could be part of the solution. \u201cIt was an improbable idea,\u201d he admits, but he was driven by the conviction that music has the power to spark change. A first-of-its-kind musical collaboration, the Nile Project is an experiment in education and empathy, an exploration of music as political activism. It is also the story of a river.<\/p>\n<div class=\"media video\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mlS4wdKjBSo\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The Nile Project brings together musicians from every country in the Nile Basin, which is embroiled in conflict over managing the river\u2019s resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>A musical risk<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The idea for the Nile Project began with an invitation.<\/strong> Mari\u00e9 Abe, an assistant professor of music in <a title=\"Department of Musicology &amp; Ethnomusicology\" href=\"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/academics\/find-a-degreeprogram\/music\/musicology_ethnomusicology\/\">CFA\u2019s Department of Musicology &amp; Ethnomusicology<\/a>, plays accordion with the <a title=\"Debo Band\" href=\"http:\/\/deboband.com\/\">Debo Band<\/a>, an Ethiopian pop music group that has been featured in the <em>New York Times<\/em> and <em>Rolling Stone<\/em> and on National Public Radio. She had invited Girgis to a gig\u2014and that\u2019s when inspiration struck. \u201cHere I was, listening for the first time in my life to music from Ethiopia,\u201d he recalls. \u201cHow was it possible that I\u2019d never heard this music before? I realized I could do something to promote a conversation that\u2019s desperately needed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Girgis and Nile Project cofounder, Meklit Hadero, an Ethiopian American singer, knew they were taking a risk \u201cbringing 18 musicians together from all these countries,\u201d Girgis says, \u201cbut the results were spectacular.\u201d The group\u2019s first concert became their first album, <a title=\"Aswan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nileproject.org\/music\/aswan\/\"><em>Aswan<\/em><\/a>, released in 2013 and named after the Egyptian city along the Nile where they performed. The album received international attention and praise from critics. In 2014, the group\u2019s second concert was followed by another album, <a title=\"Jinja\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nileproject.org\/music\/jinja\/\"><em>Jinja<\/em><\/a>, named after a Ugandan town near the source of the Nile.<\/p>\n<p>When the musicians gathered onstage, their message was clear: We share a region\u2014and the river that runs through it. If we can make music together, perhaps our countries can find a way to begin overcoming generations of distrust and work toward solutions to the water issues that have plagued the region for so long. \u201cI saw that I could use this musical platform to very softly change the way people think about each other,\u201d Girgis says, \u201cbefore the situation becomes completely polarized.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"media picture w_550\">\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">The Nile Project musicians, including (from left) Adel Mekha, Hani Bedair, Kasiva Mutua, and Michael Bazibu, hope that if they can make music in harmony, their countries can find a way to begin overcoming generations of distrust.<span class=\"credit\"> Photo by Matjaz Kacicnik<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Shattering the sound barrier<\/h3>\n<p>On a blustery afternoon in late March, inside a small CFA classroom, Kenyan musician Kasiva Mutua is drumming, her hands carving the air in short bursts of rhythm, her palms coaxing complex patterns of sound from her <em>djembe<\/em>. The students lean in, straining to catch each sequence and then clap an echoing response. Each challenge gets harder. \u201cListen!\u201d she says, laughing. \u201cYou have to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This spring, the Nile Project\u2019s first North American tour\u2014residencies at 35 universities in 4 months\u2014delivered a powerful musical message directly to college students, the world\u2019s future leaders. At BU, the <a title=\"Nile Project Residency at BU\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/arts\/nile-project\/\">weeklong residency<\/a> included panel discussions on water politics, social engagement, and the arts, as well as classroom visits, creating a lively interface between the arts and other disciplines.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout_left\">\n<p>\u201cI saw that I could use this musical platform to very softly change the way people think about each other.\u201d<br \/>\u2014Mina Girgis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The students in Abe\u2019s Sound, Music, and Ecology class listen to Mutua\u2019s words as intently as they follow her music. She tells them how she grew up drumming in secret, quietly tapping out rhythms on her knees. \u201cDrumming wasn\u2019t acceptable for women,\u201d she says. But she persisted, breaking down barriers and gradually making her way as Kenya\u2019s only professional female drummer.<\/p>\n<p>When Mutua joined the Nile Project, she experienced another first: hearing the music of Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. That simple act of listening, she explains\u2014which each member of the group has to do in order to make music together\u2014is what all citizens who live in the Nile Basin must do if they are going to solve the intractable issues facing the river they all share.<\/p>\n<p>As Mutua and her fellow Nile Project musicians tell their stories, demonstrate their instruments, and answer questions, their presence in the classroom is a transformative experience for many students. \u201cThey really opened up my understanding of music as a social engagement tool,\u201d says Neil Desai (SAR\u201915), a health science premed major who never had time for a travel abroad program. \u201cThe residency was my entry point for learning about different cultures and changing my perceptions of Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jeremy Weprich (CAS\u201915) found inspiration for his career path during the residency. \u201cLearning about water politics through a musical lens was so powerful,\u201d says the sociology major, who will pursue a graduate degree in higher education. \u201cI want to work on restructuring education so more people can have access to these rich experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For film major Giovanna Fernandes (CGS\u201914, COM\u201916), the Nile Project was a reminder of the relevance of the arts. \u201cMeeting these musicians confirmed that society needs people like me,\u201d she says. \u201cArtists can fill the gaps between disciplines and make ideas more accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"media picture w_300\">\n<p><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">This spring, the Nile Project\u2019s first North American tour\u2014residencies at 35 universities in 4 months\u2014delivered a powerful musical message directly to college students. At BU, the weeklong residency included panel discussions on water politics, social engagement, and the arts, as well as classroom visits.<span class=\"credit\"> Photo by Peter Stanley<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>This earnest optimism is exactly why the Nile Project is focusing its efforts on university communities, both in Africa and in North America. \u201cThe idea is to go below the radar of national politics and get students thinking about their commonality and their common problems,\u201d says Barbara Brown, director of outreach for BU\u2019s <a title=\"African Studies Center\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/africa\/\">African Studies Center<\/a>, who was invited to Aswan in 2013 to attend the first Nile Gathering, a week of workshops for community educators and activists. Music alone may not be enough to transform the jostling for power along the Nile River, Brown notes, but it\u2019s a starting point. \u201cThink of our civil rights movement,\u201d she says. \u201cSinging brought people together and strengthened their resolve. It was crucial. Music didn\u2019t end segregation\u2014but it was a piece.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Girgis has expanded the Nile Project with a fellowship program, an academic version of the musical collective that brings together students from different Nile country universities to learn about each other\u2019s cultures. Universities outside Africa, including BU and other US schools, will also be encouraged to participate, building international project teams\u2014and tangible solutions\u2014to address challenges along the Nile.<\/p>\n<h3>Note by note<\/h3>\n<p>Steven Sogo, a member of the Nile Project, stands alone onstage in BU\u2019s Tsai Performance Center, a thumb piano called an <em>ikembe<\/em> cradled in both hands. The audience is hushed, waiting. As the spotlight rises, a note rings out, suspended in the silence like a single drop of water, clear and pure. And then there\u2019s another. And another. Notes pile up, one by one, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Sogo\u2019s fingers are flying now, as the spotlight shifts and other musicians emerge from the shadows.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout_left\">\n<p>\u201cThe Nile Project redraws the geography in your head and helps you think of these countries as a single region, a community, bound by a common history and a great river.\u201d\u2014Mina Girgis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Gradually, the music becomes a torrent, spilling from the stage, rising and falling like a river, swelling to fill the high-ceilinged space.<\/p>\n<p>When the Nile Project launches into its final song, the audience is swaying and dancing, hands in the air. The nearly sold-out performance is filled with students and professors, some of whom met the musicians in person during the week, and others from BU and the wider Boston community who just saw the posters and came. All of them are caught up now in the rhythms of Africa, celebrating the music of a distant river.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimply seeing these musicians onstage together changes the popular imagination,\u201d says Girgis, whose improbable idea has sparked an ongoing musical dialogue among traditionally estranged cultures. \u201cThe Nile Project redraws the geography in your head,\u201d he says, \u201cand helps you think of these countries as a single region, a community, bound by a common history and a great river.\u201d This is how change begins\u2014one idea, one note, at a time.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Nile Project\u2019s weeklong residency at BU was funded by the BU Arts Initiative, the School of Music, the BU African Studies Program, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Karbank Fund for World Music.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidebar-story\">\n<h3>A Taste of World Music<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Mari\u00e9 Abe was a high school student volunteering in Tanzania,<\/strong> when she sat down one afternoon at a portable keyboard and started to play. Soon people were gathering round, singing and teaching their songs to each other. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized that music can reflect on my place in society,\u201d she says, \u201cand a way to learn about others and their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, Abe\u2019s Global Lunchtime Concert Series, sponsored by the Department of Ethnomusicology, in collaboration with the BU Arts Initiative, brings a regular dose of world music to campus. A Ukrainian quartet, a Chinese folk band, a Malian guitarist, an Ethiopian ensemble\u2014the series has grown steadily over the past four years. Each performance begins with a short talk and ends with a question and answer session.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe success of the series speaks to the growing interest in world music,\u201d says Abe, who strives for diversity that attracts audience members from throughout the University.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Global Lunchtime Concert Series is funded in part by the Karbank Fund for World Music created by Steve M. Karbank (CAS\u201979).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eleven countries, 400 million people, 4,300 miles of river\u201450 years of political discord. Can the music of the Nile Project bring harmony to a struggling region? By Suki Casanave | Photo by Matjaz Kacicnik Blood and water. 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