Journal Entry #9 - Music
BY LINDA MASON | February 4, 2005
Linda Mason spends time with a group of women in a IDP camp in Darfur. Photo: Linda Mason for Mercy Corps.
We met with a large group of women at Hamadia Camp for tea and dates and music sharing. We brought the CD of original songs for women of Darfur composed by musicians from Berklee College of Music. Alawia translated the songs into Fur, and then we played them.
The women listened intently to the lyrics, nodding their heads and clucking. They were visibly moved. Many started to talk after they songs were finished. One woman summed it up for all the others when she said that they didn't know anyone knew about their suffering.
She said that when they saw the foreigners in the camps they always thought that the foreigners were of higher status. She said that they were ashamed. They are dirty; they don't have shoes; their clothes are ripped. She said, "We are ashamed. But when we hear this music, we see you have our emotions so deeply. You know what we feel. You sit with us side by side. You sing with us. Now we are no longer ashamed. You are our sisters."
The women started to smile and clap, and then they started to trill. They said they wanted to sing for us. They all got up and started to sing, dance and trill. As they do traditionally, one woman made up lyrics spontaneously while they others joined in a chorus and trilled. They danced and jumped. Our translator wrote down the lyrics. The first part went like this:
"We know that the American people follow us side by side. Let us go side by side with our friends as they are the brilliance and real meaning of ‘humanitarian.' Take this poem from us as a gift. How we are happy because our sisters share with us our sadness and crying. We thank God, and we are lucky. We don't care because there are people who know our human value.
"The trees in our village used to bear fruit; we grow vegetables. But all that is gone. When our emotions are shared with our sisters, we say thank you."
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