Songs of beauty amid war
The acoustics of warfare are as varied as the places where war is now being waged throughout the world 鈥� in deserts and forests, farmlands and city streets. Yet across these landscapes, there is one persistent and common sound.
Every day in Gaza, a small troupe of musicians moves from one makeshift camp of displaced people to another, gathering children within sheltering pockets of songs and poetry. 鈥淲e use whatever means we can to remove the children from the war,鈥� Ruaa Hassuna told Turkey鈥檚 H眉rriyet Daily News. Her oud and voice, she says, drowns out the hum of drones overhead.
Similar stories emerge from wherever war is now being waged, from Ukraine to Sudan. They reflect a deep desire for a degree of dominion over conflict and repression, a reclaiming of agency through beauty.
Through music, Russian artists have risked arrest to express anti-war themes of empathy and remorse. For Ukrainians, music has offered a way to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 claim that they have no distinct cultural or national identity. In Kyiv, subway stations have become subterranean concert halls where musicians in tuxedos perform Ukrainian folk songs.
鈥淎longside the many indelible images from the war in Ukraine, there have also been some powerful stories with a musical theme,鈥� writes Janine Natalya Clark, a professor of gender, transitional justice, and international law at the University of Birmingham in England. They show that music 鈥渃an be viewed as a creative expression of resilience and, relatedly, resistance.鈥�
Musicians in Sudan have responded to a fierce civil war with new songs of peace that capture the 鈥渦nyielding hospitality鈥� of Sudanese culture, as the local rapper Bas told NPR. In the storied city of Timbuktu in Mali, where Islamist extremists restrict the movement of people and goods through intimidation, residents set aside their fears recently to hold a festival. Merchants shared ideas to promote female entrepreneurship during the day. In the evening, musicians played.
鈥淚t鈥檚 needed more than ever, because it鈥檚 something to help lift people鈥檚 spirits and it brings a lot of support to the local economy,鈥� Salaha Maiga, an organizer, told the BBC this week.
Perhaps the most powerful musical instrument rising above the din is the unaccompanied human voice. Women in Iran who had been imprisoned for political reasons recall Narges Mohammadi 鈥� the winner of this year鈥檚 Nobel Peace Prize 鈥� still protesting repression by singing Persian classical music deep within Tehran鈥檚 infamous Evin Prison. During the early months of the war in Ukraine, a solo voice hushed a crowded bomb shelter. Amelia Anisovych, a 7-year-old girl, sang 鈥淟et It Go鈥� from the Disney film 鈥淔rozen.鈥� A video of her performance traveled around the globe.
鈥淲ithout music ... how are we then supposed to reconcile?鈥� Fatoumata Diawara, a Malian musician, asked in an interview with Bloomberg. Around the world, societies in war are writing songbooks of resilience, disarming hatred with chorales of innocence and peace.
