The role of the musical arts in HIV/AIDS intervention in Malawi

["Arts-based intervention","Church music","Community performance","Medical ethnomusicology","Musical arts","Music metaphor","Participatory communication","Self-delectation","Spirituality","Traditional music and dance","Urban and popular music","Music therapy -- Malawi","AIDS (Disease);zMalawi -- Prevention","AIDS (Disease) -- Religious aspects","Applied ethnomusicology","Thesis (Ph.D. (Music))--University of the Free State, 2013"]

Nthala, Grant Macloly Moloko ; ["Barz, Gregory F."]

University of the Free State

Others  :  http://scholar.ufs.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/11660/6144/1/NthalaGMM.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: University of Iowa

【 摘 要 】

English: This study is a response to the call for localised research from a number of medicalethnomusicology experts who have studied and documented research findings on therelationships between medicine, music and culture in Africa. Such findings have beendocumented in recent publications such as Health Knowledge and Belief Systems in Africa(2008), The Oxford Handbook of Medical Ethnomusicology (2008) and The Culture o/AIDSin Africa (20 II). The field research supporting this study is country specific and aims atcontributing to the greater academic effort of medical ethnomusicology on the Africancontinent by providing depth of local information regarding the role that music has played asan intervention for public health concerns and healing efforts in Malawi.The study begins by ethnographically observing and investigating the HIV/AIDS situation inMalawi, factors that have contributed to the escalation of the situation, and the ways in whichMalawian society has responded musically to pandemics in general and to the HIV/AIDSpandemic in particular. The findings of this observation and investigation are documentedwith the support of academic evidence on the realities of HIV/AIDS in local Malawiancontexts and within the greater Southern African context. The supporting literature furtherdiscusses how the musical arts have played a role in defining and addressing these realitiesfrom social, cultural, economic, and biomedical points of view globally. Finally, thedocumented examples are evaluated to determine their efficacy. Challenges consistent witharts interventions are highlighted as largely due to inadequate knowledge, cultural biases, lackof training, and the practitioners' lack of sensitivity.It is observed throughout this study that different communities interpret music in differentways in order to share ideas, joy, memories, suffering, pain, and spiritual ideals. In addition,Malawian societies both in urban and rural communities use music as a unifying element forthe achievement of predetermined goals. A number of interventions have been designed,developed, and implemented to address the impact of HI V/AIDS on Malawi; however, thereis no documented data on the involvement and promotion of the musical arts in the effectiveand sustained fight against the pandemic at national governmental and non-governmentalpolicy levels. This lack of material calls for large-scale research on arts-based HIV/AIDSintervention in Malawi, part of which is the attempt made through this study.