Music as Education, Voice, Memory, and Healing

Community Views on the Roles of Music in Conflict Transformation in Northern Uganda

Bibliographic Data

ID3750331
AuthorsOpiyo, Opiyo Opiyo
Year2015
Volume5
Issue1
Pages41
Publication date2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Conflict and Peacebuilding Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2156-7263 • E-ISSN: 2156-695X
PublisherIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/africonfpeacrevi.5.1.41
OpenAlexW1001612051
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited4

The Acholi of northern Uganda widely credit music with playing a central role in ending more than two decades of armed conflict. Drawing upon a conflict transformation framework—as well as more than 200 conflict-related songs and primary source in terviews and focus group discussions with 46 community members and artists—this article explores how Acholi communities experience and perceive music as creating peaceful change through the community-identified roles of music as education, voice, memory, and healing. It suggests that listening to community members’ perceptions on the role of music provides deeply rooted, context-ipecific insights into how communities experience and respond to the circumstances around them. Furthermore, by listening to community members’ experiences and interactions with music, one can better assess how music may have contributed to transformation in a setting. It concludes by proposing ways in which these insights can inform, and possibly improve, future peacebuilding strategies involving music

Political science · Sociology · Transformation (genetics · Diverse Musicological Studies · Peacebuilding and International Security