1. MURPHY BROWNE (Abena Agbetu) This is Africa where rhythm abounds And music springs from nature sounds Played on a drum carved from a tree That grew in a forest of ebony This is the pulse of countless hearts Aboard the slave ships chased by sharks Captives bound for a place unknown On angry waves in boats that moan This is the harbour where slave ships docked And Africans stood on auction blocks Human chattel bought and sold And traded as if they were silver and gold This is the field where slaves turned the soil And chanted of freedom while they toiled To pass the message, through secret codes Of stealing away on pitch-dark roads Excerpt from The Sound That Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford, published 2000 In the The Sound That Jazz Makes published in 2000 by Carole Boston Weatherford, the history of Africans who were enslaved and the music that is part of the culture is traced from the continent through the centuries of slavery, emancipation and through to todays most recent genre, rap music. In the book written for children, each two page spread with words and matching illustration focuses on a musical genre that was created by African-Americans. This is the field where slaves turned the soil/ and chanted of freedom while they toiled/ to pass the message, through secret codes/ of stealing away on pitch-dark roads tells of the development of what became known as the Negro spirituals. Enslaved Africans used the lyrics of these spirituals to pass along messages to aid each other in their escape from slavery. The lyrics of Wade in the water which enslaved Africans sang was coded to remind those intent on escaping that they should wade in the water to throw the pursuing dogs off their trail. The White slaveholders would send patrols of White men and dogs to hunt any African who escaped slavery. One way of disguising their trail and avoiding recapture was to walk or swim across streams, creeks, rivers etc., to throw pursuing bloodhounds off their trail. The dogs would lose the scent of their prey (Africans) when they came to a body of water. The enslaved Africans needed theses instructions to survive whenever they fled slavery. Any White person listening to the enslaved Africans sing: Wade in the water, wade in the water children, wade in the Water, God's gonna trouble the water would never have suspected that the words were words of advice/warning to those enslaved Africans planning to escape slavery. The spirituals and their lyrics were part of a sophisticated system that unlike written instructions left no incriminating evidence for plantation owners or overseers to find. It was against the law for enslaved Africans to learn to read and write so written instructions would have been useless for the majority. The code words were inserted in the spirituals to instruct enslaved Africans determined to escape the living death of enslavement. Listening to, learning and singing the words to Drinking Gourd instructed enslaved Africans when, how and where to proceed as they fled to freedom. When the Sun comes back And the first quail calls Follow the Drinking Gourd, For the old man is a-waiting for to carry you to freedom If you follow the Drinking Gourd The riverbank makes a very good road. The dead trees will show you the way. Left foot, peg foot, travelling on, 2. Follow the Drinking Gourd. The river ends between two hills Follow the Drinking Gourd. Theres another river on the other side Follow the Drinking Gourd. When the great big river meets the little river Follow the Drinking Gourd. For the old man is a-waiting for to carry to freedom If you follow the Drinking Gourd. The Drinking Gourd that the Africans who fled slavery were instructed to follow was a constellation of stars also known as the Big Dipper. Other popular instructional songs were Swing Low Sweet Chariot Steal Away The Gospel Trains A coming and This Train is bound for Glory. Enslaved Africans were encouraged to sing by their enslavers according to the authors of The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Concise Seventh Edition 2013 published in 2013: Whether at work or prayer slaves liked to sing. Work songs usually consisted of a leaders chant and a choral response. Masters encouraged such songs, believing that singing induced slaves to work harder. The White people who enslaved Africans convinced themselves that the Africans were happy and contented being brutalized, having their relatives and friends sold away and working without pay to enrich the families that held them in slavery. Listening to the Negro Spirituals which came out of that experience one has to wonder at the inhumanity of rationalizing the enslavement of a whole race of people. In The Sound That Jazz Makes Weatherford and the illustrator Eric Velasquez bring to life for readers in words and glorious colour the history of African music in the Diaspora including ragtime, blues, Dixieland, gospel, swing and be- bop. Weatherford concludes the book by recognizing that: Jazz is a downbeat born in our nation/ chords of struggle and jubilation/ bursting forth from hearts set free/ in notes that echo history. With the recent public examples of White appropriation of rap music and the accompanying disrespect it is important that during this Black Music Month we educate ourselves and our children about the history and culture. The Sound That Jazz Makes is suitable for reading to children as young as three years old; it begins with a description of an African drum, the recognition that our music began on the African continent and includes an African American rapper who still hears the age-old, far-off beat/of Africa drumming on every street. June is Black Music Month! tiakoma@hotmail.com