music as refuge: cultural integration and healing in the lives of refugees living in prospect park
TRANSCRIPT
Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2010
Music as Refuge: Cultural Integration andHealing in the Lives of Refugees Living inProspect ParkKatelyn E. Wood
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF MUSIC
MUSIC AS REFUGE:
CULTURAL INTEGRATION AND HEALING IN THE LIVES OF REFUGEES
LIVING IN PROSPECT PARK
By
KATELYN E. WOOD
A Thesis submitted to the
College of Music
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Music
Degree Awarded:
Summer Semester, 2010
ii
The members of the committee approve the thesis of Katelyn E. Wood defended
on April 27, 2010.
_________________________________
Benjamin D. Koen
Professor Directing Thesis
_________________________________
Frank Gunderson
Committee Member
_________________________________
Nicholas Mazza
Committee Member
_
_
_
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee
members.
iii
For those in search of refuge
And in memory of
Coleman J. Barker and Mary McHale Wood
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the members of my committee, Benjamin D. Koen, Frank
Gunderson, and Nicholas Mazza, for their endless time and support during the research
and writing process of this work. Their input and insights have been invaluable and it has
been an honor to work with such wonderful scholars and people. I would also like to
thank the Prospect Park Family Center for their assistance as well as the many people
they have put me in touch with who have taken the time to share their stories and lives
with me. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant
encouraging presence in my life. I am so very grateful for my mother and father, Mary
and Patrick, my sisters, Annie and Maggie, my grandparents who bless me with their
daily presence in my life, and my dear friends. Thank you for your love, laughter, and
continuous support.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...vi
CHAPTER 1: MUSIC AS REFUGE
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1
The Plight of the Refugee…………………………………………………………2
Finding a Refuge…………………………………………………………………..6
A Survey of Literature…………………………………………………………...10
The Resettlement Process………………………………………………………..13
Research Methodology…………………………………………………………..16
Approaching Case Studies……………………………………………………….19
CHAPTER 2: HEALING AND GROWTH
The Story of Resettlement……………………………………………………….21
Case Study 1: James……………………………………………………………...21
Case Study 2: The Rosyara Family……………………………………………....26
Case Study 3: The Free Methodist Burundian Choir…………………………….31
CHAPTER 3: CULTURAL INTEGRATION
Bridging the Gap…………………………………………………………………40
The Role of Music……………………………………………………………….41
Additional Factors……………………………………………………………….43
Life Without Refuge……………………………………………………………..46
Strategies and Application……………………………………………………….48
APPENDIX A……………………………………………………………………………50
APPENDIX B……………………………………………………………………………52
APPENDIX C……………………………………………………………………………54
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………..56
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………….60
vi
ABSTRACT
This thesis provides an ethnomusicological study of the role of music within the
lives of resettled refugees located within a community in the south hills of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. Broadly, this work explores the concept of “music as refuge”—that is,
music’s ability to provide a haven of safety or solace. More specifically, this work
examines the capacity of “music as refuge” to mitigate challenges of transitioning from
one place to another. To approach music in this way, the thesis focuses on music’s
capacity to sooth loss, instill hope and strengthen a healthier sense of self. Additionally,
the study considers what it means to be a refugee, explores the challenges encountered
before, during, and after the process of resettlement, and how the integration of music
and culture can further aid adjustment to a new country and assist in creating a renewed
sense of identity and home.
1
CHAPTER 1
MUSIC AS REFUGE:
CHALLENGES OF RESETTLEMENT AND A TOOL FOR TRANSITIONING
Introduction
“We survived, that should be enough but it isn't.
We must work hard to become whole again,
to fill our soul with love and inspiration,
to live the life that was intended for us
before it was disrupted by war and horrors,
and help rebuild a world that is better than the one we had just left.”
- Loung Ung
Each year millions of people worldwide are displaced by war, genocide,
persecution, famine, and political conflict. Their homes, having been threatened or
destroyed, are vacated as they flee for their lives, leaving behind what is left of the only
world they have known, in hopes of finding refuge. While no person’s journey is the
same, no journey is easy and each one is filled with varying levels of sacrifice, loss, and
uncertainty. Each displaced person faces challenges that do not stop within the confines
of a refugee camp or disappear beyond the borders of another country. Once resettled,
they must try to start over in a place that is completely foreign to them. Technically, they
have survived but have they ever found refuge?
This thesis examines the plight of resettled refugees and the ability of music to
mitigate their struggles. Broadly, this work will explore the concept of “music as refuge”
–that is, music’s ability to provide a haven of safety for those in need of shelter or a place
of healing and self-restoration. In this study, ‘healing’ refers to the beneficial effects that
music can create for refugees. In this way, ‘music as refuge’ indicates a healing effect
that refugees can experience through music. More specifically, this study will investigate
the role of music within the lives of resettled refugees living in Prospect Park, a
community located in the south hills of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, paying particular
attention to music’s ability to ease the transition challenges of moving from one place to
2
another. To approach music as a refuge in this context, this thesis will focus on the
capacity to sooth loss, instill hope and strengthen a more healthy or secure sense of self
within one’s new environment. Furthermore, music as a way or bridge of transition for
refugees will be considered by looking at how its integration within the community can
strengthen and nurture a renewed sense of cultural identity.
This study is organized into three chapters. The first chapter will introduce the
current plight of a refugee on a general level, address challenges of transition, and
explore the notion of “music as refuge” within this context as well as existing literature in
the fields of ethnomusicology, music therapy, and the social sciences. The second
chapter will provide a closer look at specific case studies of members of the Prospect
Park community. The final chapter will explore cultural integration through music and
the capacity of this process to strengthen a sense of identity that can be reconciled with
the surrounding environment. Additionally, this chapter will address the importance of
music as a tool for transition, taking into account the result of its absence. Lastly, this
work will consider the application of insight gained from this project to other refugee
situations through the realization of practical strategies, which can be implemented in
order to alleviate various issues of resettlement.
The Plight of the Refugee
“While every refugee's story is different and their anguish personal, they all share
a common thread of uncommon courage: the courage not only to survive, but to
persevere and rebuild their shattered lives.”
- António Guterres
“A refugee, we might say, is a person fleeing life-threatening conditions.”1 As
defined by the United Nations convention relating to the status of refugees, a refugee is:
“a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of
race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political
1 Andrew E. Shacknove. “Who Is a Refugee?” Ethics 95/ 2 (January 1985), 274.
3
opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to
such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.”2
While this definition designates refugee status, the process of fleeing these
particular “life-threatening conditions” can take many forms for people. According to
recent statistics compiled by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) on June 16,
2009, more than 34 million men, women, and children worldwide were uprooted from
their homes. Within this amount, approximately 25 million were internally displaced
populations (IDP), 800,000 were asylum seekers, and 10 million were refugees or people
in refugee-like situations but who had not officially been given refugee-status by the
United Nations convention.
The UN definition of a refugee was created, implemented, and is presently
employed in a complex global, political context with carefully chosen words that
encompass more than is being said. The designations of a refugee, as determined by the
UN, along with yearly statistics produced by the UNHCR provide more than just a label
or a series of facts and figures. They represent numerous stages and situations which
include but are not limited to those who have been uprooted from their homes without
hardly any warning, those who have been born into refugee camps, those who have
acclimated themselves to the nation-state of their new home and a liminal state of living,
and those who have undergone varying processes and series of flight. For example in
chapter 2, one might consider how James, who was five years old when he left Sudan, fits
into this definition or what it means for the Burundians who were born in Congo and
forced to flee to Tanzania, or how the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese, who are not
considered Bhutanese by Bhutan nor Nepali by Nepal, fit into this situation. This status
is perhaps more complex than can be viewed through the lens of this definition alone and
becomes even more complicated during and after the process of resettlement. Although
their circumstances vary, each situation consists of people who are driven to endure
conditions no human should be forced to encounter.
2 UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency, Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of
Refugees (1967), 16. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html. February
15, 2010.
4
In the words of Phil Marfleet, in Globalization and the Third World (1998), “the
refugee is a woman or man with the narrowest range of choice.”3 Unlike immigrants,
who make conscious decisions to permanently relocate and live in a foreign country,
refugees have few options from which to choose. Due to circumstances beyond their
control, they must flee their homeland leaving the majority of their possessions behind.
In Disposable People?: The Plight of Refugees (1992), Judy Mayotte writes,
“These refugees are men and women whose freedom has been snatched from
them. At one time their lives were rooted in the security of family, tradition,
and homeland…they left behind things—important things that were the symbols
of their traditions and the keepers of their memory. They left cemeteries where
they buried their beloved dead—vessels of their history. They left parks and
lanes and that special fruit tree beside the house. They left their mosques,
pagodas, churches, homes, pots and pans, and pictures.”4
According to Kwizera Jean de Dew, a Burundian refugee, “a refugee situation is a
difficult one. We are people with many problems. Our rights are not respected in our
land of origin and often neither in the land of asylum. We are without a voice and when
we try to speak, our voices are not heard.” From the moment of departure, their journey
is filled with complications. Mayotte explains, “when refugees cross frontiers, the
continuum of their lives is interrupted…they are forced to rethink and reshape their
lives.”5 Challenges of transitioning from one culture to another are vast, leaving many
feeling disoriented and disconnected. Many are in shock and feel a deep sense of loss as
they are physically displaced from their homes, their loved ones, and ultimately
everything familiar to them.
Most of those who find themselves eligible for resettlement travel to their new
host country in a state of poverty and anticipation. Upon their arrival, they are assisted
by government-funded organizations whose main priority is to provide them with
necessary tools for daily survival in a new environment. The first concern of these
3 Ray Kiely and Phil Marfleet, Globalization and the Third World (New York: Routledge,
1998), 71. 4 Judy Mayotte, Disposable People?: The Plight of Refugees (Maryknoll: Orbis Books,
1992), 4-5. 5Ibid., 5.
5
organizations is to fulfill the most immediate and basic needs of refugees undergoing this
process of transition, which include clothing, shelter, nourishment, and healthcare. In
Forced Migration and Mental Health: Rethinking the Care of Refugees and Displaced
Persons (2005), David Ingleby writes, “in a sense these remain the priorities for relief
programs in any setting, because it is universally recognized that basic material needs
have to be met before psychological and social problems can be properly dealt with.”6
While many resettlement organizations endeavor to fulfill these basic
requirements since they are most immediate, emotional needs must be of concern as well
since they inevitably impact physical functions. According to an article produced by
CNN,
“Apart from physical wounds or starvation, a large percentage of refugees
develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression.
These long-term mental problems can severely impede the functionality of the
person in everyday situations; it makes matters even worse for displaced
persons who are confronted with a new environment and challenging
situations.”7
Even when the emotional needs are addressed, Ingleby explains, “when we examine the
content of the psychological articles concerned with refugees we see that they continue to
be primarily focused on the effects of past sufferings: there is little attention to the effects
of forced migration itself or the problems of readjustment in a new country.”8 It is here
that “music as refuge” can serve as a way to aid in alleviating issues of forced migration
and resettlement, through its potential to provide a haven that one can turn to when
external pressures are too difficult to bear. Moreover, because of music’s relationship
with memory, “music as refuge” offers an atmosphere of familiarity, which is able to
sooth anxiety and loss, renew a sense of self, and reconcile with the past. Furthermore,
the integration of this musical environment into the physical one can, if successful,
establish a sense of community and belonging.
6 David Ingleby, Forced Migration and Mental Health: Rethinking the Care of Refugees
and Displaced Persons (New York: Springer, 2005), 5. 7 CNN.com, “Detainee Children ‘in suicide pact,’” (2002). 8 Ingleby, Forced Migration and Mental Health: Rethinking the Care of Refugees and
Displaced Persons, 7.
6
Finding a Refuge
“Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter – to all these music gives voice, but in
such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of
peace, and see reality in new ways.”
-Albert Schweitzer
In order to understand how “music as refuge” can ease challenges of transition
and nurture a renewed sense of self, it is important to understand music’s relationship
with memory and identity. In his article “Musical Style and Social Context,” Alan
Lomax states:
“From the point of view of its social function, the primary effect of music is to
give the listener a feeling of security, for it symbolises the place where he [or
she] was born, his [or her] earliest childhood satisfactions, his [or her] religious
experience, his [or her] pleasure in community doing things, his [or her]
courtship and his [or her] work – any or all of these personality shaping
experiences.”9
Experiences recalled by music instill a sense of familiarity within a musical environment.
Due to this familiarity, coupled with feelings of security, “music as refuge” can provide a
space where challenges have the potential to be acknowledged and abated on an
individual’s own terms.
In his article titled “Music Therapy with Traumatized Refugees in A Clinical
Setting,” Jaap Orth explains, “Listening to and playing the music of their [a refugee’s]
own country stimulates the experience of their culture”10 And, if this experience is shared
with others in the community, a renewed sense of self can be created since “music is
credited with powers of bringing people together and engendering the moral cohesion of
community, evoking collective and private memory.”11 The successful integration of
9 Alan Lomax, “Musical Style and Social Context,” American Anthropologist 61/1
(1959), 929. 10 Orth, Jaap, “Music Therapy with Traumatized Refugees in A Clinical Setting” Voices:
A World Forum for Music Therapy (2005) 7. 11 Martin Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place
(Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994), 114.
7
one’s own musical refuge within the surrounding community, therefore, has the ability to
transform social relationships and identities on individual and collective levels. In a
sense, through this integration, one finds more than refuge; one finds home. Some
studies have emphasized this view of music, in regard to its ability to provide refuge, a
foundation, and a sense of community. Andrea Frisch Hara, for example, states:
“In my clinical studies, I had the good fortune to, time and again, experience
the ability of music to create community, to provide a feeling of grounding that
could be integrated and therefore last, to contain overwhelming feelings of
sadness, anger, impotence and futility, and to provide a refuge of beauty and
creativity.”12
Throughout history, music has, in the words of Benjamin Koen, “been a context
for and vehicle of expressing the most deeply imbedded beliefs and aspirations of human
life and a way to create or re-create a balanced and healthy state of being within
individuals, families and societies.”13 The concept of “music as refuge” looks at music as
an environment in which one can rebuild this healthy state of being; beginning first,
within oneself, followed by one’s family, and the community at large. McClellan
describes the atmospheric experience of music as:
“The state of absolute equilibrium, absolute balance, perfect unity and harmony
which exists both at its center and our own… music, as manifestation of
energy, is a force that interacts with the physical world for music influences our
thoughts, our emotions, our dense physical bodies, and the electromagnetic
field that surrounds us.”14
Music therefore provides an environment, which can be perceived as tangible through its
significant psychological, physiological and spiritual impact. Within this setting “music
as refuge” is nourished through two components: lyrics and melody. Both of these
12 Andrea Frisch Hara, “The NYC (New York City) Music Therapy Relief Project,”
Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy (2003). Accessed 3 April 2009.
http://www.voices.no/mainissues/mi40003000113.html. 13 Bejamin D. Koen, The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2008), 12. 14 McClellan, The Healing Forces of Music: History, Theory and Practice, 4.
8
components serve as substantial elements since they contain the inherent power to
influence emotions and the ability to nurture the environment of refuge.
Melody, like lyrics, has the capacity to evoke emotion and provide a way to: ease
loss through its relationship with memory, instill strength through a sense of familiarity,
and alleviate feelings of anxiety through the emotions it calls forth. Its capacity to
nurture an environment of refuge can be seen within various cultures on varying levels.
In an analysis of melody and its effect, Grace Ledbetter discusses the soothing power of
song and its therapeutic relief from anxiety found throughout the text of Pindar, an
ancient Greek lyric poet. Pindar writes, in regard to the melody of the lyre, that “even
powerful Ares puts aside his sharp-pointed spears and delights his heart in sleep; and
your shafts enchant the minds of the deities as well, through the skill of Leto’s son and of
the deep-breasted Muses.”15 According to Pindar, the melody “delights” and “enchants”
so much so, that even Grecian gods are pacified.
Music’s capacity to provide refuge can be further observed more concretely
within an example provided by Abraham Blinderman within his chapter on “Shamans,
Witch Doctors, Medicine Men and Poetry.” He writes:
“In the Polar North, an ailing Eskimo hunter lay despondently in his igloo,
lamenting the passing of his youth and the indifference of his former
companions of the hunt. Suddenly, he began to compose a song that brought
visions to him on his happier hunting days. Imbued with hope, he rose from his
bed, sang his song over and over, and returned to the hunt, a vigorous veteran of
many pursuits of the swift-swimming seal.”16
Within this example, melody instills life and hope into someone who was otherwise
despondent. Through the melody, the hunter is able to find strength and meaning once
again in the world around him. These examples, although brief, speak to the power of
melody and display its ability to nourish a refuge of familiarity and hope.
As with music, lyrics play a curative role within many societies. They carry
within them the ability to speak across culture and time to many people and life
15 Grace M. Ledbetter, Poetics before Plato: Interpretation and Authority in Early Greece
Theories of Poetry (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 74-75. 16 Leedy, Poetry the Healer, 129.
9
situations. Like melody, they can provide a way to ease feelings of isolation, loss, and
depression through their potential to comfort and instill hope. In Poetry Therapy: Theory
and Practice, Nicholas Mazza states, “the ancient Greeks are credited with being one of
the earliest people to intuitively conceive of the importance of words and feelings to both
poetry and healing.”17 In Poetry the Healer, Jack Leedy explores the importance of lyrics
and song in his discussion of Australian aboriginals. Leedy explains that when an
aboriginal learns Karma songs, he must do so very carefully because he depends on their
power to relieve problems during times of crisis. Poetry as described by Leedy is “one of
the natural human resources for healing...poetry helps people handle their
feelings...people turn intuitively to poetry for healing.”18
People turn to poetry for healing because it has the capacity to release emotions
when the world becomes too difficult to endure. The ability of lyrics to nourish a sense
of refuge can be observed throughout written accounts of people’s experiences. During
WWII for instance, Japanese Americans were persecuted, due to the political climate, and
sent to internment camps. In one particular camp, the Tuli Lake Relocation Center,
Japanese Americans composed a form of Haiku, which provided an outlet of expression
as well as an art form in which to take refuge. In their article, “Senryu Poetry as Folk and
Community Expression,” Marvin K. Opler and F. Obayashi explain, in reference to these
poems, “the cultural form itself provides the refuge, the recreation and the escape.”19
While there are many examples concerning the healing capacity of lyrics, these are just a
few instances where one can observe their influence.
Since antiquity, a great deal has been documented on the power of music, its
capacity to facilitate healing, and its ability to provide refuge. Likewise, much has been
written on the musical traditions of refugees, including mechanisms developed to
preserve their identity. Nevertheless, few sources have focused on the ability of music to
act as a refuge, a place of healing and integration, and a strategy to cope with transitions
17 Nicholas Mazza, Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice (New York: Routledge, 2003),
5. 18 Jack J. Leedy, Poetry the healer (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1973), ix. 19 Marvin K. Opler and F. Obayashi, “Senryu Poetry as Folk and Community
Expression,” The Journal of American Folklore 58/227 (1945), 7.
10
within the lives of resettled refugees during the process of resettlement as they endeavor
to “rebuild a world that is better than the one they’ve just left.”
The theoretical frame of “music as refuge” is related to many interdisciplinary
theories and models in ethnomusicology, music therapy, and poetry therapy. In addition
to the above, the following literature review will highlight studies that have helped to
shape my understanding of ‘music as refuge’, which will frame the case studies in
chapter 2.
A Survey of Literature
“Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies.”
–Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
There are a number of works that address the restorative and healing power of
music as well as the concept of “music as refuge.” Two key works are Benjamin Koen’s
edited volume, The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology (2008), which
explores “the power of music to create health and healing at the individual, community,
and societal levels” as well as his monograph, Beyond the Roof of the World: Music,
Prayer and Healing in the Pamir Mountains (2009), which investigates multimodal
processes of healing through music and related practices on multiple levels.
The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology provides a collaborative piece
of literature engaged in by professionals across disciplines that presents current research
on music and healing. The contents of its chapters illustrate multiple ways to understand
music, medicine, and culture. Chapter 7 for instance discusses music and memory, which
play an essential role within the concept of music as refuge since memory induced by
music can recall a familiar environment. Chapter 10 focuses on the social healing role of
music within a nursing home community. This is applicable since it pertains to a
gathering of people from varying cultural backgrounds. Music within this setting
provides a sense of neighborhood within the nursing home. As previously mentioned,
this thesis will explore this sense of community within the context of resettlement paying
particular attention to the effects of the integration of music within the community.
11
Beyond the Roof of the World: Music, Prayer and Healing in the Pamir
Mountains falls into the realm of medical ethnomusicology and bridges gaps between the
health sciences, ethnomusicology, and music therapy with its cross disciplinary
discourse. The concept of a holistic approach to research and the idea of unity in
diversity are prevalent within the work and essential to any research within the area of
medical ethnomusicology. Koen places the dynamic relationships among music, prayer,
meditation, poetry, and healing, in conjunction with what he calls the “five factors of
music, health, and healing” (the physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual)
to connect multiple dimensions of human reality, which can be applied to the reality of a
musical refuge.
Other pertinent research can be found within Gregory Barz’s Singing for Life:
HIV/AIDS and Music in Uganda (2005) which provides a fairly recent example of ways
in which music can be used as a therapeutic force, as a voice, and a haven in which to
heal. It demonstrates the successful applications of music as a tool for raising awareness,
creating a community, and finding a voice, all of which address the restorative power of
music and its ability to act as a refuge.
“Musical Healing in Eastern Tajikistan: Transforming Stress and Depression
through Falak Performance” (2006) by Benjamin D. Koen also serves to demonstrate
music’s power to promote health and healing. Specifically, it focuses on the positive
influence of a musical poetic genre, labeled falak, on the state of stress and depression.
The importance of this article within the context of this study is based on the fact that it
explores the role of music and its ability to ease one’s pain, stress, and depression. This
thesis will examine this role within the context of its concept as a refuge as well as
investigate the benefits of the integration of a combined culture-specific musical tradition
and individual-specific musical refuge into a culturally diverse community.
A significant challenge of resettlement for a refugee is a sense of loss that can be
felt on a number of levels. Literature that pertains to the study of loss, ways to cope with
loss, and the relationship between music and loss includes Ruth Bright’s Grief and
Powerlessness: Helping People Regain Control of Their Lives (1996) and Coakley and
Shelemay’s Pain and Its Transformations: The Interface of Biology and Culture (2007),
which discuss cultural aspects of loss. Chapter 7 within Grief and Powerlessness:
12
Helping People Regain Control of Their Lives centers, in particular, on loss within the
lives of migrants and refugees. It also explores challenges of relocation and sources of
grief, which are components of this thesis. While recognizing these issues this thesis will
investigate the role of music in the alleviation of them. Additionally Nicholas Mazza’s
Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice (2003) proposes a poetry therapy practice model
which consists of three components: receptive/prescriptive, expressive/creative, and
symbolic/ceremonial. Through conscious exploration and application of these
components to the situation of a resettled refugee, new strategies can be established to
lessen this sense of loss within the lives of resettled refugees through the power of music.
Some works which cover music within the refugee experience include “Tradition
in the Guise of Innovation: Music among a Refugee Population” (1989), by Adelaida
Reyes Schramm. This article discusses mechanisms developed in a tradition that allows
them to withstand extreme changes and conditions. Keila Diehl’s Echoes from
Dharamsala: Music in the Life of a Tibetan Refugee Community (2002) on the other hand
delves into the musical identity of the Tibetan refugee within the community of
Dharamsala and discusses various ways in which refugees discover, express, and
preserve their identities through music as they struggle with notions of home,
displacement, and identity. Instead of focusing on how a tradition or musical identity
withstands change, this thesis will examine the how the sharing of a tradition and musical
identity can be used as a way to reconcile one’s past environment with the present.
In order to comprehend the challenges that are confronted by resettled refugees
one must take a look at their situation on a global level. Literature concerning the plight
of a refugee includes Globalization and the Third World (1998), edited by Ray Kiely and
Phil Marfleet. This work addresses migration, resettlement, the effect of organizations on
the refugee experience, and other’s perceptions of refugees. Likewise, Felicity Baker and
Carolyn Jones’s article titled “Holding a steady beat: The effects of a music therapy
program on stabilizing behaviors of newly arrived refugee students” (2005) presents the
refugee situation and discusses external and internal stressors they face. Other works
consist of “Who Is a Refugee?” (1985), by Andrew E. Shacknove, which provides a
comprehensive framework for what it means to be a refugee. It discusses various
meanings and implications of the term and is a useful source of research since it presents
13
a working definition of a term that is used for categorizing the people who will be focus
of research along with their situation. Egon F. Kunz’s article titled “Exile and
Resettlement: Refugee Theory” (1981) delves into greater detail by providing a study of
specific situations of refugees, an analysis of recurring factors, and observations to
predict the course of future events regarding other refugees. These sources ultimately
provide a working background for the thesis whose demographic area of focus is on
refugees.
The Resettlement Process
“The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.”
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
Since the Refugee Act of 1980, an Act designed to provide systematic guidelines
for the United States government in order to effectively resettle refugees each year, the
United States accepts a designated number of refugees into the country. This amount is
determined through a joint decision made, on a yearly basis, by both the president and
Congress. As of last year, the number of refugees or people in refugee-like situations
found residing in the United States averaged to a little less than 349,000.20 Formally
admitted but unsure of their final destination, refugees entering the states face the anxiety
of traveling to a new environment, the panic of flying for the first time, and the grief of
being separated from their friends and family as they are gradually dispersed throughout
the country. James, a Sudanese refugee, shared a related aspect of his experience saying:
“It was the first time I had been on a plane. It was a different experience.
Whenever we got on the plane it was a bunch of our friends, then every time we
stopped one of them went somewhere else. They went all over the United
States. I don’t know how we ended up in Pittsburgh.”
20 UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency, 2010 Regional Operations Profile-North American
and the Caribbean. Retrieved from http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-
bin/texis/vtx/page?page=49e492086. February 15, 2010.
14
Refugees are resettled to other countries when their health, safety, or human rights are
threatened in their initial place of refuge. They enter the United States through the
Federal Refugee Resettlement Program; a product of the 1980 Refugee Act. In “Family
Literacy Program Connects Refugee Families with Schools,” Shannon Mischler and
Joshua Kivuva explain,
“Though the protection of refugees is the responsibility of the United Nations
High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), any state that is willing and able to
resettle refugees within its territories is allowed to, provided the state abides by
the various Geneva Conventions on the Protection and Treatment of Refugees
and other displaced persons. As a resettling agency, the U.S. government
committed itself to availing sufficient resources to the refugees in order to make
them employable and economically self-sufficient.”21
Once in the states, government funded agencies provide housing, healthcare,
employment, and counseling services for 90 days. After this time, depending upon the
state and their circumstances, some are eligible for Medicaid for another 5 months.
Following a year, refugees are able to apply for permanent residency and as soon as they
have fulfilled 5 years as a resident, they may apply for citizenship.
Although they are no longer fleeing for their lives, resettlement is no easy
process. Many resettlement organizations must concentrate their efforts on new waves of
incoming refugees once 90 days have past, leaving the process of acculturation in the
hands of non-profit organizations, churches, communities, school districts, and mutual
assistance associations (MAA). In many cases, resources are exhausted which can leave
a person who has been uprooted from their country of origin feeling very isolated.
Within the United States, Pittsburgh, among other cities, is a popular area for
relocation due to its affordable housing, job availability, and relatively safe environment.
Resettlement to the area of Pittsburgh is determined by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania’s Department of Public Welfare. Refugee organizations within the
Pittsburgh area consist of Catholic Charities, the Pittsburgh Refugee and Immigrant
Assistance Center (PRIAC), Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS), the
21 Shannon Mischler and Joshua Kivuva, “Family Literacy Program Connects with
Refugee Families with Schools,” Fieldnotes for Able Staff (2007), 1.
15
Pittsburgh Refugee Center, and Acculturation for Justice Access and Peace Outreach
(AJAPO). Catholic Charities and JFCS are contracted by the Office of Refugee
Resettlement and serve as the predominant resettlement organizations in the area. For
nearly 30 years they have relocated refugees from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet
Union, the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia to communities all over the city of
Pittsburgh; one in particular being Prospect Park.
Over ten years ago, Catholic Charities began resettling refugees to Prospect Park;
a community located in the south hills of Pittsburgh, which currently consists of refugees
from Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam, Russia, and the former Soviet Union, Iraq, Morocco,
Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, Somali, the Republic of Burundi, Zambia, and Haiti. Within the
complex over 20 languages are spoken with over 33 dialects. Due to the low number of
tenants in Prospect Park, the management of the complex worked out a housing
agreement with Catholic Charities in order to fill their apartments and boost their
numbers. Courtney Bahr, the Prospect Park Family Center Site Director, explains “there
was a good school district and it was a great place where they could build a community
because there were so many empty apartments. They could just start creating a
community that they once had.” Additionally, Prospect Park was safe, affordable, and
provided easy access to public transportation. Moreover, the school district of the
borough, Baldwin-Whitehall, offers extra support and aid to resettled refugee students.
Soon after this time, the school district, South Hills Interfaith Ministries (SHIM),
the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC), the Office of Child Development,
Baldwin-Whitehall Borough, the Whitehall Presbyterian Church, and families from the
Prospect Park Community formed an alliance called Project Liberty, which essentially
sought to help resettled refugees within the community. Mischler and Kivuva explain,
“Project Liberty is a 10-year collaboration created by the Baldwin-Whitehall
School District to address the comprehensive needs of refugee families.
Libraries, adult literacy providers, hospitals, social service agencies, and others
participate in quarterly meetings and monthly subcommittee meetings to properly
address the needs of refugee families.”22
22 Ibid., 3.
16
Through this project, the GPLC set up English as a Second Language (ESL) courses
within the community and SHIM, an agency that focuses its efforts on suburban poverty
and the resettled refugees in the area, developed an early childhood program.
In 2007, the members of Project Liberty created the Prospect Park Family Center
once they realized the community had an interest in having a center and there was a need
for it. SHIM acts as the lead agency for this center and the families from Prospect Park
involved in Project Liberty make ultimate decisions during the hiring process. In 2007,
they hired the present director of the center, Courtney Bahr, and not long after two family
development specialists, Kelly Crawford and Lori Haller. Courtney explains that SHIM
is their lead agency and that they, as the family center, work very closely with the
preschool in addition to their concentrated efforts to meet the needs of families with
children ages 0-5 within the community. She emphasizes the benefits of being able to
“communicate with the teacher and the director on different issues…referring a family or
a child to the family support center. Just being able to communicate and being able to
provide all the services that they need.”
Services offered by the family center include, but are not limited to, home visits
which occur twice a month on a voluntary basis, group visits, various events within the
community, food bank services, doctor’s visits, and field trips. Whether it is a phone call
to Verizon, a parent/teacher conference, or figuring out the bus routes, Courtney explains
that the main goal of the center is to be able to help the families of the community and
teach them in a way that will make them self-sufficient so that they will be able to
independently handle similar situations that may arise in the future. For, if you “give a
man [or woman] a fish; you have fed him [or her] for a day. Teach a man [or woman] to
fish; and you feed him [or her] for a lifetime.”23
Research Methodology
“Music, when soft voices die�
Vibrates in the memory”
-Percy Bysshe Shelley
23 Anonymous proverb
17
To examine the role of music within the lives of people living within Prospect
Park, I employed ethnomusicological participant-observation and field research
methodology consisting of formal and informal interviews, audio and video recording,
extensive journaling, and involvement in the daily musical and life activities with
members of the community. My initial contact within the area was Courtney Bahr, the
director of the Prospect Family Center, who provided me with assistance and introduced
me to many members of the community.
During my time there in the summer of 2009, I was involved in the annual
summer camp run by SHIM. Through the collaborative efforts of the camp director,
Doris Nagle, and a middle-school teacher from the area, Katie Tarasovic, a music
program was developed and implemented for children ages 5-12 that ran every Tuesday
and Thursday morning. Through this experience, I was able to spend time getting to
know the children living in the community as well as their college-aged camp counselors.
In addition to the camps, I was involved in events hosted by the family center
every Friday for women and children in the area. These events which included
gardening, socializing, and other activities brought together people of many nationalities
who were resettled to Prospect Park. Because English was still new to many of the
women, communication was executed through gestures and various other forms of body
language. Initially, my methodology was to include focus group sessions that would be
incorporated within these Friday events, but because 85% of the population who attended
spoke languages other than English there was no way for me to truly understand what
was being communicated without a translator. And this particular setting would have
required more than one kind of translator since many languages were used. On
Saturdays, I observed Free-Methodist Burundian choir rehearsals held at the Baldwin
Health Center located in the community and on Sundays attended their church services
located at a Free Methodist church 25 minutes away from the area. Other involvement in
Prospect Park included cooking and sharing meals with families and assisting at times in
the preschool.
While these experiences provided insight into the unique dynamics of the
community life and rich encounters with a number of its members, the thesis will focus
on three case studies to explore the role of music within the lives of certain resettled
18
refugees. The case studies center on individuals who were the first from their country or
land of asylum to resettle in the south hills of Pittsburgh, perhaps making the transition
more challenging since they arrived without contacts or pre-established networks in
place. Moreover, they were chosen for their ability to illustrate the complexities of what
it means to be a refugee and varying ways in which music’s can act as a refuge or place
of solace. Lastly, these individuals have a working knowledge of the English language,
which was essential for the project. The case studies consist of a Sudanese individual
who resettled to the United States from Kenya, a Bhutanese family who resettled from
Nepal, and a community of Free Methodist Burundians who resettled from Tanzania.
My relationship with James, the individual from Sudan, developed out of my
involvement in the summer camps. I was able to get to know him better since he was a
camp counselor during summer. My field research methodology with this case study
relies primarily on formal interviews held every Friday after camp finished for the week,
note-taking and observation of his interactions with children and peers in the community,
and informal interviews conducted with the camp director and the director of the family
center on separate occasions.
I was first introduced to the Bhutanese family who resettled to Pittsburgh from
Nepal through the help of Courtney Bahr who had provided me with the contact
information for the family and explained to them my research. My fieldwork
methodology with this case study relied initially on formal interviews but moved into
informal interviews, video and audio recordings, and extensive note taking. Every
Saturday, I would spend time with the family and as I did so would let my tape recorder
run all day as we watched Nepali films, prepared the evening’s meal, conversed and sang
songs. During this time, I would visually document the day through photographs, short
video-recordings, and notes based on observations. The reason for the movement from
formal interview to informal interview was largely due to the fact that the family was
more reserved and tentative during formal interviews since they provided a less natural
setting.
As with the Bhutanese family, the center also assisted me in establishing
relationships with the Burundi choir and put me in touch with the director. Through this
initial contact with Paul who co-directs the choir with Samuel I was invited to attend
19
choir rehearsals and Sunday services. My field research methodology for this particular
case relies heavily on video and audio recording, informal group interviews with the
choir and other members of the Free Methodist community since not everyone was
familiar with the English language yet, formal interviews with the pastor of the
Cornerstone Free Methodist Church, and extensive note taking.
Approaching Case Studies
“The world we live in is the world we have created.”
-Sudanese Proverb
In considering how one should approach field research, because of the complexity
of what it means to be a refugee, coming up with an appropriate model was not only
difficult but did not seem to fit with my sense of how the work should proceed.
Nevertheless, these were the considerations that were foremost in my mind as I
approached the case studies: challenges individuals within each case study faced as
resettled refugees, the role of music as a refuge within the context of those challenges,
what being a resettled refugee meant to each person, and levels of adjustment and
acclimation to the surrounding community.
These case studies are far from cut and dry. James is Sudanese and appears to be
of that culture, when in reality, he is coming from Sudan but relating to the culture in
Kenya because it is the only one familiar to him. Many of the children of the family from
Bhutan were born in the refugee camps in Nepal. They associate themselves with Nepali
culture and relate to the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese culture in Bhutan through their
parents. Before the Burundian refugees were resettled to the United States, they fled
from Burundi to Congo, from Congo to Tanzania. Many of these Burundians were born
in Congo and have never seen their home country but relate to Burundi, Congo, and
Tanzania through the common ground of the Free Methodist church.
Taking into account the complexities of what it means to be a refugee and what
“home” means within this context influences how music is defined within the life of a
resettled refugee and subsequently the role it plays and the way it provides a sense of
solace and comfort. There are many streams of consciousness that one can experience
20
within the larger definition of what it means to be a refugee. For some, the music and
performances of their childhood in their homeland provide a sense of refuge, for others it
is the childhood experiences of the Christian songs they learned in a refugee camp they
grew up in that give a sense of home, for others it is songs that were recorded yesterday
but remind them of a transient place along their journey when they may have learned
Arabic in Egypt or Kiswahili in Kenya. In order to tackle these varying factors and
investigate the potential for music to act as a haven, I designed a series of questions
unique to each case study which were created and adapted based on each previous
interview, whether formal or informal, that enabled me to further explore these issues.
21
CHAPTER 2
HEALING AND GROWTH:
SOOTHING LOSS AND RESTORING A SENSE OF SELF
The Story of Resettlement
“Gharib wa el ghorba aqsa nidal
I am a stranger, and estrangement is the hardest struggle”
–Abdel Karim El Kabli
The healing power of music can be observed through its unconscious use in the
lives of refugees. The memory of a particular melody, the lyrics of a specific song, and
numerous aspects of the sound can speak to one’s own experience and call to mind
people, places, and environments; bridging the distance between them, whether they are
of someone living or deceased, or whether they are places and environments from one’s
homeland, one’s initial place of refuge, or a refugee camp. This sense of closeness and
familiarity carries within it the potential to alleviate feelings including but not limited to
loss and anxiety, which are among some of the challenges faced by a resettled refugee.
To gain a sense of appreciation regarding the role music plays within the lives of the
three case studies featured in this work, it is important first to understand their
background, their struggles, their hopes, and their current life situation in further detail
than previously mentioned in chapter 1.
Case Study 1: James24
“We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we
want to be respected.”
-Rigoberta Menchu
James is a twenty-year old resettled refugee from southeast Sudan who is
currently a student of criminal justice at La Roche College in Pennsylvania. As
24 The names of the resettled refugees living in Prospect Park have been changed for
privacy purposes.
22
mentioned earlier, his participation within this study developed out of a relationship that
was formed with him while working together in the summer camp at Prospect Park. He
is employed within the camp as a counselor and plays a vital role since he is able to
communicate with some of the children more effectively due to the fact that he is a part
of the Prospect Park community.
In 1993 at the age of five, James was forced to flee his homeland due to the
genocide of in Sudan. James is part of the Didinga population, a herding community that
occupies the Southeastern corner of Sudan that fled to Kenya to avoid attacks on their
villages and people in Southern Sudan. Kenya is just one of the many countries that
populations in South Sudan fled when their own country was no longer safe to inhabit.
When his family escaped the genocide, he explains that “They ran from the war situation
up there and I was so young that I couldn’t realize anything. I didn’t realize what was
going on at all.” They fled to Kenya and remained there for nine years. James’ family
was sponsored to come to Kenya and this sponsorship put James through school. While
in Kenya, a Catholic nun took care of the family and helped James’ mother find
employment. James explains, “Whenever we went from Sudan to Kenya we got
sponsored. I don’t know how you say this but I had a sponsor who paid for my school till
sixth grade and we had a Sister Louis who helped my mom sell stuff. I guess the process
from being a refugee to come here was like two years.”
As a fourteen year old, James and his mother along with six of his younger
siblings had to leave his father and two brothers in Kenya when they were resettled to
Pittsburgh. They were the first Didinga to be relocated to the city of Pittsburgh and,
while there were other people from African countries in the Baldwin-Whitehall Borough
area, nobody spoke Kiswahili or the Murle-Didinga language. John explains:
“I wasn’t familiar with seeing so many white people. Everything was weird for
me: the food, everything. And, for some reason I could not understand anybody
who spoke English at all. It took me time. I just didn’t get anything at all.”
He describes being shocked by the weather and landscape of Pittsburgh. It took him
some time to adjust to the winters but he appreciated that he was sent to Pittsburgh
instead of Canada where some of his other friends were resettled.
23
When James entered the states, he had completed the equivalent of a sixth grade
level of education. When he arrived in Pittsburgh, he was administered a school
placement exam. Due to his score on the placement exam, James was registered as a
student at Baldwin High School and entered at a freshman level. He describes the
experience as bewildering particularly since the high school had an enrollment of 1,544
students, the majority of who were white. He explains, “I remember the first time I
walked in class. I sat down and I now think the teacher told me to stand up and introduce
myself. So, [not knowing what the teacher had said] I just stood there. I didn’t know
what he meant I just stood there and just looked around.”
Because James’ father was not resettled with his mother and six other siblings,
James had to act as both father and brother within his family environment. During our
last conversation he told me that his father was finally arriving to the states the following
week. After six years of being here, he would finally have his father around. He spoke
about this saying; “I am excited and nervous because I haven’t seen him for a while; for
six years. It’s going to be a lot of pressure off my shoulders now. I feel like I’m finally
going to have a lot of freedom without having to worry about anything now. I had to be
my siblings’ father figure and brother.”
When James first came to Pittsburgh it took him a while to discover a sense of
self. He explains, “Whenever I came here, I had to find myself because I wasn’t sure
who I was. I had to go through a process where you don’t know who you are.”
Emotional challenges range from adjusting to a new community, to finding a sense of
identity, to being able to reconcile with the past. James talks about the challenges of
trying to adjust to a new environment while attempting to keep his past alive,
When James was relocated to Pittsburgh he was the only one who spoke
Kiswahili or Murle-Didinga, that is, aside from his mother. Isolated in a world that could
not understand him, James was drawn toward song lyrics as a way to immerse himself in
an atmosphere in which he felt connected.
Through the medium of lyrics, James was able to maintain his knowledge of a
language that was no longer a part of his environment, particularly so, since his younger
siblings took to English very quickly. Free-style Kiswahili rap acted and continues to
function as a way for James to stay up-to-date with the ever-growing urban dialect of
24
Kiswahili in Kenya. Today these song lyrics serve as a bridge between his life in
Pittsburgh and the one he once had in Kenya. James explains, “I don’t speak Swahili
with anybody. I’ll just listen to music and that will give me a flashback of the language
and get it back.” Here is a case in point, which on the face of it, seems to be a rather cut
and dry situation, but in reality it is far more complex. For example, James is drawn to
Kiswahili and the life he had in Kenya as opposed to that of Sudan. It is Kiawahili and
not Murle-Didinga that makes him nostalgic for his childhood, the person he was, and the
people he once knew.
Although an exposure to these lyrics sparks a sense of nostalgia, it simultaneously
strengthens a personal relationship with the world he left behind. He states, in regard to
listening to songs in Kiswahili, “it makes me miss it [Kenya] a lot but at the same time I
feel good about it. It just makes me feel good…it’s the familiarity of it and kind of
reminds you of the life I had back then and what to appreciate right now. It gives me like
a little flashback.”
When James first arrived to the United States no one understood him and because
of this experience James fears that, if he ever returns to Kenya someday, the same thing
will occur. Observing the slow loss of his native language, Murle-Didinga, which he is
now only able to visually and aurally comprehend, James strives to keep up with his
grasp of Kiswahili through exposure to song lyrics since it is particularly important for
him to remember the language and feel a part of the culture.. Although listening to these
lyrics induces a sense of sadness, it also eases this sense through the closeness the
listening environment provides. Through this closeness, James is able to preserve his
childhood language while sustaining his former identity.
When speaking about music, James explains that his tastes differ greatly from
those of his friends. He states:
“My friends think this is really weird, but I don’t like hip-hop that much. I
don’t know why, I just don’t like it that much. I listen to more meaningful
songs because I like listening to the lyrics more than anything else and hip-hop
lyrics are just about cars, money, and girls. That’s something that I’m just not
into that much.”
25
While this difference in music can leave James feeling disconnected from his friends and
those he relates to, he explains that the music he listens to leaves him with a good feeling
to the point where he does not mind that he is not able to share it with his friends.
When James listens to reggae music in particular, it leaves him with a feeling
where he can’t help but feel happy perhaps reminding him of the feelings he felt during
his time in Kenya when he did not have the stress and pressures of taking care of his
family and filling the place of his father. He states:
“Reggae just puts you in a happy mood. Like anytime I feel really sad, I’ll put
it on and jam to it because it’s going to make me smile and just brighten my
day.”
In this case, music nurtures an environment of refuge since particular sounds of reggae
music are able to induce him into a state of happiness. James explains that when he
listens to reggae, he can be immersed in a melodic environment that is without any sense
of worry or difficulty, without the pressures of trying to juggle two to three jobs and
maintaining his studies on top of it.
Music as a whole has the ability to speak to one’s own experience and, through
this resonation, has the power to provide strength, instill hope, and allay feelings of
depression. James describes his experience of gravitating toward the song “Ma Ma” by
the artist Gyptian explaining that “it’s about something I can relate to.” The lyrics to the
chorus and the first verse are as follows:
(Chorus)
“Mama dont cry no more,
Oh better days are there for sure,
Wipe those tears from your eyes
� I will bear the hunger, we poor
�� (Verse) �
Mama, Theres so many times we go through days without food to eat
�Mama, Theres so many nights we sleep in a bundle like a flock of sheep
� Mama, I know what it feels like to have a holey shoes on my feet �
So mama don’t cry, cuz I know �I’m gonna make your bitter turn sweet.”
26
James illustrates his relationship with these lyrics stating, “It’s him talking about his mom
and how they struggle which is something I can relate to since my mom has six kids and
has been raising them by herself. He talks about how his mom struggled raising him and
her kids. It’s just something I can relate to.”
This is just one example, but significant due to the applicability of music to
James’s life. As a son who had to fill the role of the father within his family, he had a lot
of pressure and responsibility on his shoulders. The last line in particular provides hope
and strength for someone in James’s situation because here the singer states that although
all seems hopeless, he is going to make it better. It displays a sense of courage in what
appears to be a hopeless situation; a courage that a listener in the same situation can be
inspired to take on.
Case Study 2: The Rosyara Family
“Oh my goodness, everyone’s looking at me like I’m a ghost.
I’m not ghost, I’m a human being just like them.”
-Shanti Rosyara25
Every Saturday, the sound of music and the smell of spices can be found coming
from the Rosyrara home. The family gathers with their friends, the majority of which are
Nepali-speaking Bhutanese, and they spend the day listening and singing to music while
watching Indian and Nepali films as they participate in assembling the evening meal for
the day.
This is an environment filled with many diverse dynamics and sounds. Priya can
be heard humming her traditional cowboy songs, Shanti and her other sisters can be heard
singing along to the music coming out of the computer, the melodies of Indian film can
be heard coming from the television, and the noise produced by the pots and pans as
dinner is prepared all add to the collage of sound. Each person is immersed in an aural
environment that they move in and out of as they switch from singing to speaking, from
melody to conversation and back again.
25 Former Bhutanese refugee resettled to Prospect Park
27
Rosyara family is a part of an ethnically Nepali Hindu minority in Bhutan known
as the Lhotsampas, a term meaning “southerners” in Dzongkha the official language of
Bhutan. In 1991 the family joined the 120,000 other Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who
were evicted from the country of Bhutan between the late 1980’s and early 1990’s
because they did not speak Dzongkha or wear traditional Bhutanese dress. These Nepali
Bhutanese refugees, mostly Hindu and Buddhist, fled to Nepal since India, which shares
borders with Bhutan and Nepal, does not recognize them as refugees and therefore
provides them with no assistance. Once in Nepal, the Rosyara family was put into a
refugee camp, located in the village of Beldangi in eastern Nepal, which is run by the
UNHCR. There, the nine-member family consisting of a mother, father, four daughters
and three sons, two of whom were born in the camp, shared a small hut with no
electricity, plumbing, or running water. Since there was no employment within the camp,
the family had to rely on rations provided by the UN. The children, who now range in
age from 18-27, went to school in the camp where they learned English in the classroom
but continue to speak Nepali as their primary form of communication.
Since many attempts to repatriate to Bhutan, the country that they have called
home for many generations, have failed, the United States has offered to resettle around
60,000 of the 120,000 refugees. On April 9th 2008, after spending seventeen years in the
refugee camp, two of the daughters and one of the sons were resettled in Pittsburgh. The
rest of their family arrived a month later. Shanti, the second to youngest daughter, details
her first experience in the United States saying:
“There were different kinds of people here and they were speaking their
different languages. Some people they spoke English but some people spoke
their own language. I saw these people from Thailand…Burmese people.
When I first saw them, I thought ‘Oh, these people are my country people,
because they have the same skin.’ I went up to them as they were talking but I
first listened to them and realized they spoke different languages and I’m so sad.
I thought, ‘oh my goodness, these people are not in my country.’ I was the first
in Pittsburgh: me and Ojal and my other brother. Nobody else was here...no
Nepali people.”
28
She explains how difficult it was for her to be the only one from her country in
Pittsburgh. Even after the rest of her family arrived a month later she states that she was
“feeling nervous and sleeping inside the room during the day, and sometimes crying. I
turned on the TV a lot.” She explains:
“This one day the door was already closed, but I left my key inside and it
locked. I just tried to open and it didn’t open. We’re outside and the key’s
inside and we don’t have [a] cell phone to call the landlord. How to call? We
have no idea. And I’m thinking, ‘Oh, what to do?’ “What do I do?” So, I see
one lady, an American lady, sitting outside, and she’s playing with kids. It’s
maybe like, 6:00 in the evening time. It’s so cold and I try to speak to that
lady, and I’m like ‘excuse me.’ I don’t know what she thought of me but she
said ‘whoa!’ She then caught her children and ran inside. I felt so sad. So I
stayed outside and cried and my neighbor said to me ‘what’s wrong with you?’
And I said this key is inside and this door is locked. And she laughed a lot and
said ‘I’ll help you don’t worry.’ She called the landlord and landlord came and
opened door. After that, we made five keys.”
Shanti is now able to laugh when she looks back on this situation but at the time she felt
dismayed, isolated, and disillusioned.
There are currently twenty Bhutanese families living in Prospect Park. Although
every immediate family member of the Rosyara family is living there, their other
relatives were relocated to Georgia and Texas. Others are still in Nepal. The eldest
daughter, Ojal, explains, “We came to US and they told us ‘you will be in...’ and they
gave the name of the state. We tried to stay in one place, but they said ‘you have a big
family and after a few years, more will be redistributed [to the United States].’ This is
why we couldn’t be in the same state.”
Presently, the entire family works in a packing factory called Quality Copack
Company located in North Charleroi, which is about a 45-minute bus ride. Shanti
explains, “Catholic charities will help you find a job and they will sort things out.
We’ve been working one year in the factory. I work eight hours for five days but it’s not
enough I think. I really want to learn everything and learn mathematics at the family
center. We start classes at 6PM.” Having been in the states for over a year, they are able
29
to assist other Bhutanese families and guide them by teaching them how to use electrical
appliances and helping them navigate the bus systems among other things. In their spare
time, they even help distribute donated clothing around the Pittsburgh area to other
refugees.
While the most basic physical needs, including food and shelter, must first be
addressed during the process of resettlement, music can offer strategies to aid in
alleviating the pain and struggle of the emotional transitions. In particular, music as
refuge can provide an environment for those who may have never been able to find a
haven for their emotions which, due to resettlement may include feelings of anxiety, lack
of control, isolation and loneliness, lack of confidence, frustration, anger, or exhaustion.
During the process of resettlement, the Rosyara family was separated from their
extended family. While having relatives scattered across the states is not an entirely
strange concept to many Americans, for the Rosyara family, who had been used to living
in closely knit farming and herding communities, this was incredibly surprising and
difficult. In order to ease the geographical distance, the Rosyara family keeps in contact
with their relatives primarily through phone calls, since they do not have the financial
resources to visit them in person.
During these conversations, the family sings songs to one another over the phone
reminding them of the life in their home country. Priya, the mother of the Rosyara
family, calls her sister once a month and over the phone sings “cowboy songs” which
were the work songs they would sing in Bhutan as they would watch their herd graze.
Shanti explains, “When they sing they remember the past…it makes them feel close.
Sometimes they will cry also.” They cry because they miss their homeland but they
continue to sing because it soothes feelings of loss and lessens the distance between their
life in the United States and the life they once had.
Shanti translates a cowboy song that her mother sings over the phone, saying:
“Now we are together playing like this and one day we all our separate ways will go.”
Minal, the youngest daughter explains that the song reminds them of the past and that
they are able to take comfort in the way the music brings them closer to the homeland of
their mother and father. For, although Bhutan has been their country of inhabitance for
many generations the only home the Rosyara children have known, besides their one in
30
Pittsburgh, has been Nepal. Through these lyrics, the Rosyara children are not only able
to feel closer with family members who have gone their “separate ways” but are also able
to maintain a sense of heritage and home for the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese culture in
Bhutan, the place their parents came from; a place some of them have never actually
seen.
Shanti, Ojal, and Minal provide an example of how music influences their
emotions and how lyrics in particular inspire them through their difficulties. They talk
about one song titled “Phool ko Aankh ama.” Shanti, Ojal, and Minal first explained the
song by singing and translating it line by line but then followed this by playing a
recording of the it performed by Ani Choying Drolma, a Buddhist nun and musician.
The lyrics are as follows:
“Phool ko aankha ma, phulai sansara
Kaanda ko aankha ma, kaandai sansara
Jhulkinchha hai chhayan, basto aansara
Chhita suddha hos, mero boli Buddha hos
Mero paitala le, kirai na maros”
Below is a translated version according to Shanti, Ojal, and Minal:
Phool (flowr) ko aankha (eyes) ma — if the flower is in your eyes
phulai sansara (world) — the world is like a flower
Kaanda (thorn) ko aankha ma — if the thorn is in your eyes
kaandai sansara — the world is like a thorn
Jhulkinchha (sunrise) hai chhayan, — when we stay in the sun
basto aansara — our shadow is like us
Chhita suddha (clear) hos, — if your heart is clear
mero (mind) boli Buddha (god) hos — and your mind god-like
Mero paitala le, — with your foot
kirai (insect) na maros — an insect you would not harm
Ani Choying Drolma translates, in a recorded performance of the song, that:
“Basically what it is really trying to say is that how everything depends on how
you perceive things in your life. If you perceive things positively, the effect
31
will be positive. And the song says, ‘May my heart always be pure, may my
words always be enlightened, may the sole of my feet never kill an insect.’ In
the beautiful eyes, the world is always beautiful.”
Shanti, Ojal, and Minal explain that the song inspires them to live their life optimistically
because one gets from life what one takes from it. If one sees the world as dark and
depressing then it will always appear that way, but if one focuses on the good and
inspiring aspects, then the world will be good and inspiring.
For the Rosyara family, music serves to create a sense of unity within the family,
through its familiarity. As they prepare their Saturday meal together they join in multiple
converstaions and songs that can be hard simultaneously. They move fluidly from song
to song, joining in with someone else whether it be an Indian film song coming from the
television, a cowboy melody generally prompted by Priva, or Nepali tunes coming out of
the computer. Shanti explains that songs including “Phool ko aankha ma” remind them
of Nepal since they are “like the national songs” as she puts it. Familiar melodies,
whether national or traditional, are able to provide an environment that can draw one
closer to one’s own native culture without the disturbance of daily struggles.
Case Study 3: The Free Methodist Burundian Choir
"Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of hope that the present has brought us"
-James Weldon Johnson
The last group included within the case studies of this work is made up of Free-
Methodist Burundians from Tanzania. In 1972, Burundians, primarily Hutu, were forced
to flee their country due to a political campaign of violence that developed out of a Tutsi
dominant government. The massacre of Hutus, often referred to as a “selective genocide”
in which “about 200,000 Hutus—and a few Banyaruguru Tutsi’s”26 were killed, forced
300,000 Hutus to flee the country. This particular group of Burundians escaped to Congo
for about 24 years until in 1996 tensions heightened between Rwanda and Congo causing
26 Nigel Watt, Burundi: Biography of a Small African Country (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2008), 34.
32
fighting to break out. From Congo the Burundians fled to Tanzania where they spent
around 10 to 11 years in refugee camps until being resettled to Pittsburgh in 2006. Paul,
one of the choir directors, details his experience of this stating, that he, himself, was born
in Congo but his parents were born in Burundi. He states,
“After the war of 1972, they fled Burundi to Congo. So they stayed there for 23
years and then the war began again in Congo and they fled to Tanzania but we
were born in Congo. And when the war began we fled to Tanzania. Most of us
were very little like around 6 or 8 or 10 years old when we got to Tanzania.”
Paul also explains the risks of fleeing from Congo to Tanzania stating:
“It was very hard and dangerous because we had to take a big boat [which was
not machine operated]. We had to use paddles to go 16-20 hours and if the
army would find you in lake Tanganyika they would kill you. So, to travel lake
Tanganyika was very hard and very dangerous because there was nowhere to
run if they found you. They would just kill you. So to go to Tanzania through
lake Tanganyika was very hard and dangerous. During the war in Congo we ran
away from it. When the war was taking place in this place we would run to
another place where the war was not taking place. When they find us over there
they kill most of us and then if you got a chance to run, you ran quickly and you
ran away from them until you get a boat. If you find a boat across Lake
Tanganyika, you get the boat and you find the paddle and then you go. It
doesn’t matter if you are alone or if you are four people or sixteen people.
Whoever sees you, you are going to travel the lake Tanganyika with them.
They come quickly and find you there. If you are already in the water they call
you to come back and you come back and pick them up and you go.”
Once in Tanzania, the Burundians sought shelter in refugee camps operated by the
UNHCR. In the camps, food, clothing, and housing were provided but houses in which
they lived were very small for families who generally had 4-8 children. As with the
Bhutanese, there was no electricity, plumbing or running water in the camps. Water
pumps were two miles away and sometimes were visited around ten times a day.
The United States decided to resettle Burundian refugees who had fled their
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homeland in 1972 since they were not able to return safely to their country nor could they
settle permanently in Tanzania. The United States has resettled around 8,000 Burundians
and around 97 reside in Pittsburgh. The Free Methodist Burundians in Prospect Park
were relocated there in 2006. According to the Free Methodist pastor of Cornerstone
Church, Mike Guthrie, “they were put in a camp that was called the American camp that
was the resettlement camp of the United Nations. After they were picked in this lottery
to come here, they went into that camp and some of them were there for almost a year
before they came.”
Those who are resettled to the United States face an entirely new set of challenges
that range on varying levels from physical to social, to psychological, to spiritual, and to
emotional needs. The Burundians explain that while they are happy to have electricity,
running water, and indoor plumbing, they are confused because they don’t have the
money to pay for it. While resettlement organizations provide incoming refugees with
jobs, finding a higher paying job on one’s own is extremely difficult because of the
language barrier. It is hard to find time to learn English with four to eight children to
care for at home.
On top of that, other refugees in the Pittsburgh area who want to move to Prospect
Park to be closer accessible services, friends, and family may not be able to do so in the
future. Courtney Bahr explains,
“It won’t be happening much more, there are some different things going on
with the apartment management. They’re having Catholic Charities and JFCS
sign for an apartment lease so they are getting tougher on who is coming to
Prospect Park. I don’t know how many more we will see resettled here but they
want to come here. There are families who are being resettled to Greentree
village, Castle Shannon, Carrick that want to move here because there are
services which they can walk to, where it’s accessible and they have family and
friends here.”
Paul explains that it is difficult to adjust to a country you know nothing about. It helps to
be resettled near other people that share the same culture who have perhaps already
figured out the ways of the country. Courtney explains:
34
“For those who have lived in a refugee camp for most of their life, resettlement
is extremely challenging because they were not given any responsibilities in the
camps…For these generations who have been living in a refugee camp their
entire lives, growing up there and coming here has been a really tough
transition. It seems like it’s become a more difficult transition. In the refugee
camp, you’re pretty much given everything. So you’re given your certain
rations of food and you don’t have many options. You can’t necessarily go
outside and work and make money for your family and so you’re really limited
in what you can do and then coming here and going out and getting a job is a
tough transition from getting a job to paying your rent, buying your food and
making your choices. It’s such a difficult thing for people to transition to, I
think.”
Pastor Mike Guthrie discusses how many Burundian refugees feel overwhelmed since
everything that they are exposed to now is completely different from the life they knew in
the refugee camps. He states:
“In Tanzania, there’s no free travel. If you went between camps, even to go
between the camps, it was a huge deal. You had to have special papers, travel
papers, to go through. If you got outside the camp, they’d beat you. A lot of
people were killed. The incidents of rape and violence against women are just
astronomical and so just the aspect of fear and a sad life of subsistence is part of
what they’ve all endured. So, we’ve seen that kind of attitude change from the
ones who have been here the longest as opposed to the ones who have been here
a short time who come in. They’re new to the culture and they’re terrified. We
always say that they look like deer caught in headlights. They don’t know what
to make of everything. There’s just so much sensory flood and overload around
them and the children are terrified. They’ve never seen, I mean, there’s white
people all around.”
Beyond physical struggles dealing with budgeting, time management, language
barriers, among other issues, refugees carry with them an abundance of emotions
concerning their own personal experiences. These feelings include a sense of guilt and
35
obligation to send remittances back to their friends and relatives in the camps. Kelly
explains:
“I think with the refugees some of the harder situations are that a lot of them
still have family members back in a camp and so I think there’s a lot of sadness
and guilty feelings that they have; that they are resettled, that they miss their
families, and when are they going to get resettled. There’s an extremely heavy
burden to send remittances back. So, they’re sending tons of money back home
and that makes it really difficult to get financially stable here because a lot of
them are only making just above minimum wage and supporting five or more
children and so I think that’s a burden.”
The Burundians, as well as others, are faced with past experiences as refugees and are
forced to deal with the reminder of the loss of loved ones from those incidents.
When they first arrived, the Free Methodist Burundians asked Catholic Charities
to tell them where they could find a Free Methodist church. Pastor Mike Guthrie
explains that when the Burundians fled to Congo and Tanzania:
“They just continued to have church wherever they were. Their leadership
training was such that they just continued the church. There were no American
missionaries, not even European missionaries. So they just took the church with
them and continued to develop it on their own because most of the Americans
from 1972 couldn’t go back because it was too dangerous. Whatever they had
learned they taught to other people and basically just continued on with the
church and perpetuated it among the people that they were with. So the Free
Methodist heritage that they had prior to 1972 they carried with them to the
Congo and then to Tanzania. Once they got to this country the Free Methodist,
well not just the Free Methodist since this is probably true of the Baptists and
the Pentecostals as well, but the Free-Methodist groups said that they needed to
find their mother because they knew their mother was from America. And so,
they started looking for the Free Methodist church. They were here for about 7-
11 months before they actually were able to find the church because our name is
listed as Cornerstone Church. But it was Catholic Charities who kept trying to
help them find their church home and finally they found the United Methodist
36
Church who knew where the Free-Methodist Church was at and so Catholic
Charities called us and we met with three families in Troy Hill in February of
2007.”
Pastor Mike Guthrie explains that when they had a welcome dinner for the Burundian
families they sang at the end, in order to thank them for the meal and in order to give
thanksgiving to God. He states:
“when we were done with the dinner they asked if they could sing and that was
the first time we had ever heard them sing and so it was the men and the women
and children all lined up to say thank you. I don’t know how many there were
at the time, 16 of them and so they all lined up and sang this beautiful a cappella
song.
Soon after this, some of the Burundians came to Paster Mike Guthrie in order to ask him
for his permission to form a choir. Paul states, “For us, the reasons why we make the
songs is to thank God and to worship him and to proclaim the good news of God.”
Presently the choir rehearses every Saturday from 10AM to 12PM in the Baldwin
Health Center located in Prospect Park and they perform every Sunday for the
congregation at Cornerstone Church. Sometimes they perform in their native Bantu
language Kirundi, other times in Kiswahili, and now they are writing songs in English so
that, according to Paul, “we would be able to make the English songs and put out our
ideas, our goals and our intentions.”
When the Free Methodist Burundians fled to Tanzania, they began to learn, and
sing songs in Kiswahili. While they learned and performed these songs in order to, as
Paul states, “make them [the Kiswahili speaking people] understand what we were
saying,” they still maintained their songs in Kirundi. Since their relocation in 2006, the
Free Methodist Burundians still perform songs in Kiswahili and Kirundi. Paul explains:
“We sing in Kurundi and Swahili…many Swahili songs we performed when we
were in Tanzania and some of the Kurundi songs are from Burundi and some
also we performed when we were in Tanzania also. The Kurundi songs are
from generation to generation [from] our grandfather and grand, grand,
grandfather. And we didn’t use the guitar and the pianos. They usually use the
37
drums so they play the drums and they sing. This is the way that we usually
sing in Burundi or in Kurundi. The Swahili songs are the same way because we
follow our culture.”
Although, the instrumentation has changed now that they are in Pittsburgh, the music has
remained the same. And these songs, bestowed from generation to the next, provide a
sense of familiarity and instill a sense of cultural identity. Rebecca, a member of
Cornerstone Church, explains:
“They’ve picked up a taste of other communities because they’ve all been
smashed together with Somali’s. But a lot of it is still the original
Kirundi/Burundi tradition and I think it’s a way of carrying who you are with
you because a lot of them have these identities....like ‘I am Burundi but I’ve
never been there, I’ve never lived there.’ So it’s a way of carrying home with
you as well and it’s definitely a thing of pride and if you hear the kids, the kids
know every single song even though a lot of them have become Americanized
so quickly, they still know the Kirundi songs because that is a part of who they
are.
Like the children of the Rosyara family, many of the Burundians have never actually
lived or visited the Republic of Burundi. The familiar songs so much a part of their lives
even still for the children now growing up immersed in the American way, recall images
of the home that they know (most likely Congo and Tanzania), evoke images of their
native home, and instill a sense of a long tradition of faith followed by their ancestors.
Through this a sense of cultural identity is strengthened on individual and group levels.
Lyrics of the songs sung by the Free Methodist Burundians are of particular
significance when they are tied to the word of God, since they attribute their survival to
God. Before resettlement, when the Burundians were forced to flee their homeland in
search of safety, Paul explains:
“We were so afraid to miss some of our friends, to miss our parents, to miss our
relatives, our grandfather; to miss everything …our home, our owners, our
goods, everything we had. We were so unhappy to leave them.”
38
The transition from the Republic of Burundi, to Congo, to Tanzania, and finally
Pittsburgh was, as explained in Chapter Two, extremely challenging. Paul states:
“When we came, God helped us reach Tanzania and we lived there for twelve
years. That’s why we sing. We sing…to sing, for us, is to proclaim the good
news and to tell people the good news through the songs so that they can be
survived as we have been survived.”
Pastor Mike Guthrie describes the content of their songs explaining, “For them...all of
their music is some kind of story. A lot of the Kirundi songs are very sad and solemn.
They are about suffering and how God helped them through it.”
The Free Methodist Burundians are able to take refuge in the word of God
because, by focusing their attention on what God has gotten them through, they are able
to assuage the pain that they experienced. Through the music, Paul is able to soothe his
own feelings of loss and transform out of a state of distress into one of health and
wellbeing despite everything he has been through by focusing on positive aspects found
within his life.
In regard to the Free Methodist Burundian choir, Paul discusses how the songs
they sing give them a sense of hope when they sing together. He states:
“It makes us feel like we are in front of God and when we reach heaven there
will be no war, there will be no running to another place, there will not be
trouble or sickness, there will not be the law like American law or African
law…there will be God’s law and everyone will be free in Jesus in God and we
will sing the angel’s songs and we will not be hungry or angry to someone or be
mad with something. We will be free in all and we will have eternal life and
never die again”
The choir takes refuge in “word of God,” which is so much a part of their music, because
it instills within them the hope of eternal life. So much so, that no matter how dark life
may appear and how many struggles they encounter, they are reminded that there is a
place where there is no sickness, there is a place where there is no corruption, and there is
a place where they can be truly free.
39
This freedom is emphasized in a song that the choir is in the process of writing.
Paul explains, “We are still learning English so that in the future we would be able to
make English songs and put out our ideas, our goals and our intentions. Right now we
are writing some songs in English.” He sings:
“We will be free with Jesus Christ
We will be free forever
Sing Alleluia”
Although it is a short excerpt, through these particular lyrics of the song, the choir is
affirming their praise, faith in God, and the promise of everlasting freedom. These songs
instill hope and provide strength during times of hardship and struggle and essentially
have the potential to nourish a refuge of remembrance, familiarity, and hope.
Furthermore, within the safety of this haven one can ease challenges of everyday life.
While these particular case studies give insight into the unconscious use of the healing
power of music, if acknowledged these entities can be further applied to mitigate
challenges of transition.
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CHAPTER 3
CULTURAL INTEGRATION:
RENEWING AND STRENGTHENING A GROWING IDENTITY
Bridging the Gap
“Home is not where you live but where they understand you”
-Christian Margenstern
“Music as refuge” has the ability to alleviate challenges of transition through its
capacity to provide a haven of familiarity and hope. Furthermore, the successful
integration of this refuge into a community can renew a sense of cultural identity and
further ease transitions by bridging the gap between past and present cultures. Moreover,
this integration can strengthen relationships between diverse populations within the
community itself. In an article titled “Holding a Steady Beat: The Effects of a Music
Therapy Program on Stablising Behaviors of Newly Arrived Refugee Students,” Felicity
Baker and Carolyn Jones explain:
“Music provides a unique opportunity to bridge gaps between people from
diverse backgrounds. As each culture has its own musical history and identity,
group musical experiences provide opportunities for sharing and
communicating differing beliefs and hopes in a safe and accepting
environment.”27
Beyond sharing and conveying ideas, beliefs, and emotions, the performance of
music within a community, in the words of Richard Bauman, “offers to the participants a
special enhancement of experience, bringing with it a heightened intensity of
communicative interaction which binds the audience to the performer in a way that is
specific to performance as a mode of communication.”28
27 Felicity Baker and Carolyn Jones, “Holding a Steady Beat: The Effects of a Music
Therapy Program on Stablising Behaviors of Newly Arrived Refugee Students” British
Journal of Music Therapy 19/2 (2005), 68. 28 Richard Bauman, “Verbal Art as Performance,” American Anthropologies 77/2 (1975),
305.
41
The incorporation this environment into the physical environment allows one to,
in the words of Albert Schweitzer, transcend a world of unrest to see reality in new ways.
Theresa A. Allison in her chapter within The Oxford Handbook of Medical
Ethnomusicology acknowledges this as well emphasizing “the importance of music in
creating a sense of community and enabling people to transcend their everyday lives.”29
In order to understand how this integration strengthens a sense of cultural identity,
bridges the divide between places, and transcends everyday life, the following section
will explore this role of music within the community of Prospect Park.
The Role of Music
“The world we live in is the world we have created.”
-Sudanese Proverb
The role of music within Prospect Park apartments is varied and the music that
fills its walls; rich in diversity. Shanti describes her experience of music beyond what is
being played in her apartment saying, “From my home, I hear African music and Russian
music.” Courtney explains, “You can hear music coming from the windows. It’s not
96.1 [a popular music radio station in Pittsburgh], it’s cultural, it’s worldly…it’s theirs.”
The employees of the family center are exposed to the life of the community on a daily
basis and the music of the community as a part of that exposure. Courtney states, “I was
on the phone the other day and in the background was African music blasting. It’s on a
lot especially when you go into the home. It’s constantly playing.”
Music is prevalent within Prospect Park and there are many ways in which it is
shared across cultures. Lori states,
“I’ve seen so many guitars just sitting in a house and then somebody will pick
up the guitar and start playing in Burmese houses and Burundi houses. This can
really bring people together.”
Pastor Mike Guthrie describes his experiences within Prospect Park stating,
29 Koen, The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology, 219.
42
“I would go and visit and there would be all of different people in the house. I
would think ‘where did these people come from?’ It didn’t matter if they were
Burundi or Somali or Nepali, everybody would be sitting on the floor singing.”
Through this sharing across cultures, one can strengthen a sense of identity along with a
sense of relatedness and belonging within an unfamiliar environment.
For James, sharing music has served as a way to relate to others. He explains:
“My friend Kayla. We didn’t have anything in common at all and then we just
started listening to music and I realized that we liked the same things in music
and now she’s one of my best friends. I shared some Swahili songs with her,
and even though she doesn’t understand it, she likes it”
Since many of James’s friends who live in Prospect Park do not share his tastes in music,
being able to connect on a musical level with someone, particularly since they are
originally from the area, has the capacity to renew a sense of belonging. While James’s
experience in Pittsburgh has gravitated toward the lines of acculturation rather than
integration, he is still able to find an acceptance of self and with that a sense of belonging
in an otherwise isolating world.
While at work, the daughters of the Rosyara family share cultural differences and
similarities with Indonesian and Mexican co-workers. Shanti explains,
“This time everyday, I’m working with Indonesian and Mexican people and
they teach me their language and music and they like to learn India language
and music as well. I teach them words to songs and they teach me like this.
And I teach them more words and after five seconds they forget and sat
“Shanti? What’s this word again? And they teach me words and after one hour
I still remember. But my language is different to learn.”
By sharing these words and music, the Rosyara family are not only able to strengthen a
sense of self but are able to bridge the gap between their homeland and the place of
resettlement by keeping their culture alive within the context of this new environment.
Additionally, they stretch the boundaries of their identity by exposing themselves to other
cultural traditions and languages through a give and take of sharing. In a work
environment where conversations are not easily understood, the daughters of the Rosyara
family communicate by teaching song texts that are so prevalent within their lives.
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The Free Methodist Burundian choir presents a unique situation, for they renew a
sense of cultural identity as Burundians through their identity as Free Methodists. They
integrate their musical world of hope and refuge within their church and community
environment. Rebecca explains, in regard to one of the choir members, “Juliann every
once in a while will say ‘I need to come to the front and sing.’ And it will just be her and
she’ll start singing and everyone will join with her. And it’s like a collective kind of
movement.”
Cornerstone Church represents an environment that not only fosters integration
but also encourages it. Because of this, even populations of Burundi and Nepali people
who are not Free Methodist want to come there since they know that they will be free to
integrate their culture within the community. Pastor Mike Guthrie explains,
“A number of Nepalese and Burundians are Roman Catholic, the one’s that
we’ve met anyway, and they want to come...and what draws them is the music.
So we had about 6 or 7 of them coming and they’re all related somehow, I can’t
tell you how...brother, cousin, uncle. But we couldn’t get them home right after
the service was over so I said well maybe later on...but there’s a good church
you can walk to from Prospect Park.”
The integration of their musical environment into the physical one around changes the
atmosphere of alienation into one of acceptance, belonging, and familiarity. Pastor Mike
Guthrie explains:
“My hopes for them are to be able to assist them so that they don’t lose the
music culture that they have...because I know that that’s important to them
because of it being the center of what they do. You can see some of these
young men and young women, even when they’re not with the choir,
dancing...they’re singing to themselves. There is something...music does
something to draw people’s souls into things...it just does.”
Additional Factors
“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe.
I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
-Henry David Thoreau
44
Additional factors further strengthen the role of music within the community and
its integration within the environment. These sources include YouTube links, national
conferences and gatherings, and the incorporation of musical performances within the
community. YouTube links provide an outlet for bridging the distance from one’s
homeland while additionally providing a medium for sharing their traditions with others
in their present living environment. National conferences are gathering of particular
cultures, which aid in easing transitions from one environment to the next by providing a
unified national community. Performances integrate musical traditions within the
community and through this they have the ability to provide a renewed sense of identity.
The Free Methodist Burundi choir shares their musical life through YouTube
links by showing video clips of their recorded performances. Courtney explains:
“One of the families in the choir had actually brought me a piece of paper with
this YouTube website on it. So I look it up on the computer and it’s actually a
video of their choir singing at the church and they were like ‘that’s us’ and I
could see them. They were all singing this song together and then everybody
started singing while they’re watching themselves on this computer. They were
so excited.”
Beyond this exposure, Kelly states, “we’ve been in the homes and they’re always playing
something in some of the Burundi homes. They’re playing this Swahili choir DVD
which you can YouTube. It’s often on and the kids are dancing and singing. When we
go in the homes it’s really common to see.” Not only are these songs a integral part of
their life, but their becoming a part of their children’s too despite the fact that their
children have never seen Burundi, Congo, or for some Tanzania.
James explains that when his family was resettled to Pittsburgh his mother
stopped singing since there wasn’t an outlet for it, such as performance occasions within
the community. However, when he played a video of a traditional dance, he states that
she “used to watch it everyday and sing along with it because she knew the songs.” He
continues on saying, “there is a computer at my house and whenever my mom has a
barbecue or something she likes to play songs from Kenya. I’ll just YouTube and let it
play. She likes that a lot.” In a way, YouTube is able to substitute the loss of
45
performance aspects within his mother’s life and provide a sense of closeness to their
home in Kenya.
James and the Rosyara family both talk about traveling to conferences that
celebrate their culture. James explains that the conferences are held “mostly for reasons
like celebrations where people will dance and sing.” Shanti explains, that there are a lot
of people “dancing and singing like in a concert. This year last week it was in Virginia.
Next year it is in Atlanta.” Ojal describes her excitement when she met a native
Virginian born and raised in the United States who spoke to them in both Dzongkha and
Nepali. She explained that he had visited Bhutan and that he had a friend who taught him
the languages one word at a time. Overall these conferences have the potential to
strengthen a sense of cultural identity and instill a sense of nearness with one’s native
land.
Every year since 2007 when the family center first opened in Prospect Park, the
center has held a community thanksgiving dinner. During their first year of having this
event, Courtney explains:
“At the Thanksgiving dinner, we asked Samson [a choir member] to play guitar
because he told me he played the guitar and we needed entertainment and then it
evolved from there. The Burundi choir ended up performing and when they did
it was amazing. There were so many of them up there. They had the entire
room standing. There were other Africans in the back calling out to them.
People from other countries joined them on stage and all the kids were dancing.
They all were from different tribes and completely different countries. It was
interesting to see because it was like they missed that. They don’t have that
opportunity because how many churches would you go to where you would
have a traditional African choir...there isn’t one besides them so it was really
great to see. Because everyone wanted to get up and perform something we
have thought of having a celebration of culture and music event so that
everyone can have a chance to perform for one another because they were really
interested in it. I think they were just proud of being able to share their culture
and having others see it because when we talk to families they are so interested
46
in letting us know about their culture and their community. They want to teach
us about it. For them it’s just a way to continue it on and not forget about it.”
In The Anthropology of Music, Alan Merriam states, “Every society has occasions
signaled by music which draw its members together and reminds them of their unity.”30
While this occasion was not planned, it certainly drew members of the Prospect Park
community together from all different walks of life.
Other performances within the community include the Burmese Water Festival
and the Burundi choir performances and rehearsals at the Baldwin Health Center. The
integration of their own musical environments and culture into that of the community
renews their sense of identity and through this acceptance strengthens this sense of self,
belonging, and ultimately a sense of home and place within their new environment.
Life Without Refuge
“Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you.”
-Paul Simon
It is important to bear in mind that anything that has the capacity to positively
influence, also has the ability to negatively affect. For instance, if integration within a
community is not accepted, it could further advance feelings of isolation just as
performances at conferences could make one feel disconnected to their native land if they
are not able to remember the songs or the dances. While keeping this in mind, it is
important to note that this does not negate the fact that music has the ability to provide a
refuge: one that can transcend the everyday reality and challenges of life. If
acknowledged and used properly, this environment of “music as refuge” can significantly
mitigate challenges of resettlement and transition.
While the significance of “music as refuge” has been established. It is appropriate
to observe what happens when there is a lack of an environment of refuge. This can be
observed in the first two years of James’s life in Pittsburgh. Most of the music James
encountered in Kenya was through live performance and when he was resettled to
30 Alan Merriam, The Anthropology of Music (Evanston: Northwestern University Press,
1964), 227.
47
Pittsburgh, he had no way of listening to music. He explains that his musical world was
lost for two years and “whenever I came here I didn’t listen to any Swahili or anything
like that…nothing. I didn’t have access to it. I didn’t know people like I do right now. I
barely spoke English, so people wouldn’t even understand me. The first year here was
miserable, just miserable. I couldn’t understand anybody and they wouldn’t understand
me.”
James sang a little bit on his own but not with the whole family. He explains, “I
was used to that one type of music and then coming here you kind of still miss the music
that you were used to listening to everyday and it was like that for two years. I missed it
a lot.” Unlike the Free Methodist church that incorporates the songs and traditions of the
Burundians, James was not able to do so. In Kenya James attended to Roman Catholic
services because the nun that was helping his family strongly encourage him to do so.
While growing up in Kenya he also went to bible school. Within the context of the
church services and school they would sing Kiswahili songs. He states, “right now I kind
of do miss those songs.” In this case, it perhaps not necessarily the songs he misses but
the sense of belonging those songs provided; a sense of belonging that is no longer as
present within his life.
Although, while in Kenya, he was more or less compelled by others to go to mass,
when he arrived here he decided to go on his own because he missed the sense of
belonging that the services provided. He explains, “Singing with other people made me
feel like I belonged in a group. However, attended services in Pittsburgh isolated him
more because he wasn’t able to participate in the songs. James states:
“Maybe that explains why I don’t go to church anymore. I liked to actually sing
along with the songs because I knew most of them. The first couple of years I
went to church here, we sang very different, like ‘oohhhhh and ahhhhhh.’ I
couldn’t get it, like really. They had this weird…I don’t know. I just couldn’t
sing along with it, and I wanted to so bad. It’s just I couldn’t sing along with
it.”
Two years later, after joining the high school soccer team, James was able to begin to
find ways to adjust primarily through acculturation. Not being able to take refuge in a
music environment or find a way to integrate within society made him feel extremely
48
isolated and cut off from both worlds. He explains, “Whenever I came here, I had to like
find myself because I wasn’t sure who I was. I had to go through a process where you
don’t know who you are and it took me until about my sophomore year of college. It
took me then to find who I really was.”
Strategies and Application
“You left your country to seek refuge in another man's land,
You will be confronted by strange dialects; you will be fed with unusual diets,
You got to sleep in a tarpaulin house, which is so hot,
You got to sleep on a tarpaulin mat, which is so cold,
Living like a refugee is not easy, it's really not easy.”
-The Refugee All Stars
The life of a resettled refugee is challenging and their daily struggles too complex
for any one solution but music plays a strong role in mitigating these difficulties. In
Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place, Martin Stokes states,
“Music is clearly very much a part of modern life and our understanding of it, articulating
our knowledge of other people, places, times and things, and ourselves in relations to
them.”31
Furthermore “music is socially meaningful not entirely but largely because it
provides the means by which people recognize identities and places, and the boundaries
which separate them.”32
By being aware of the needs of resettled refugees and the
therapeutic power music provides, one can begin to realize more fully the value of music,
its role within individual lives, and an its ability to speak to these needs across cultures.
By recognizing the therapeutic role of music and its ability to provide refuge,
strategies can be developed to effectively aid in the process of alleviating transitions from
one environment to the next. Through an exploration of strategies, one can find further
ways to mitigate struggles of transition through the power of music. For instance,
familiar song texts or those that speak to a similar experience could be incorporated
31 Martin Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place
(Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994), 3. 32 Ibid., 5.
49
within English as Second Language (ESL) course studies. In this way one would be able
to speak to the physical need, i.e. the necessity of learning the language of the
environment of resettlement, and speak to the emotional needs of adjusting to a new
culture, i.e. finding a sense of belonging. In Poetry Therapy: The Use of Poetry in the
Treatment of Emotional Disorders, Jack Leedy states that “lyrics, whether in songs or in
poems, can help patients by demonstrating the universality of feelings and of
problems.”33
Additionally, global institutions such as schools and churches could be
open to not only welcoming resettled refugees into the classroom or the church service
but embrace and encourage the incorporation of the rich culture they have to share as
well.
The healing power of music and its ability to act as a refuge provide more ways
than one in which challenges encountered during resettlement can be mollified. As Brian
Stokes states, “music does not then simply provide a marker in a pre-structured social
space, but the means by which this space can be transformed.”34
Through the
comprehension and holistic understanding of the role of music within the complex lives
of resettled refugees, additional options can be developed to more fully ease the transition
of resettlement so that the word “home” can once more have existing significance.
33 Jack J. Leedy, Poetry Therapy: The Use of Poetry in the Treatment of Emotional
Disorders (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1969), 70. 34 Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place, 5.
50
APPENDIX A
IRB APPROVAL
51
52
APPENDIX B
INFORMED CONSENT FORM
53
54
APPENDIX C
PROSPECT PARK FAMILY CENTER APPROVAL FORM
55
56
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Katelyn E. Wood was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 13, 1985. She
received her Bachelor of Music (2007) from Saint Mary’s College and is currently
pursuing her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at the Florida State University. Her scholarly
interests include music of refugee and immigrant communities, music and nostalgia, and
Irish traditional music.