Cross Cultural connections

May 25th
Cross cultural connections
My host family loves listening to the radio, therefore my host brother keeps asking me to show him my music. Today I finally pulled out my nearly dead laptop (there is no electricity at my village home, and I have not been to the district office due to field work). When I started playing my Chris Tomlin and Starfield, he wasn’t all that responsive. I even played the “African” tunes I downloaded before coming to Malawi, and he still did not recognize it. This perplexed me because why wouldn’t an African recognize his own music? (Rhetorical question) However, I started playing “Grenade” by Bruno Mars and “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz and he lit up with excitement. He knew the lyrics and everything and they are not even in his native language.
This demonstrates one of the assumptions we make about Africa. I don’t exactly know why my family chooses to listen to the American/Canadian music on the radio. However, I must tell you that this remote village without electricity, internet, or running water still has radios that play Bruno Mars and Celine Dion Monday to Saturday and Hillsongs on Sunday. On a selfish note, it’s a taste of home and somewhat comforting for me. From my family’s perspective, perhaps they choose that radio station because it is English, for my sake. Whatever the reason, I think it’s something interesting to share with all my friends, family, colleagues, and readers back home. What you listen to on the radio reaches all the way to this remote place, where I can barely get cell phone reception. In fact, to really target my point, I will probably already have listened to all the new tracks by the latest and greatest artists from North America when I return home. I will be completely lost in Grey’s Anatomy and Off the Map, but all the new songs will be familiar because I’ve already heard them in my village home.
Besides my presence, the radio, and television in the capital city, my family does not receive much experience of what Canada is like. It makes me wonder, what if my host brother only knew about Canada what Bruno Mars, Celine Dion, and Jennifer Lopez sing about? I suppose our misconceptions of Africa are just as inaccurate as their perception of Canada. Interestingly enough, you can probably blame both misconceptions on the media. We see our vision of ‘Africa’ on TV, advertisements, theme parks, movies, or someone in Hollywood is adopting a baby or building an orphanage somewhere. And from what I’ve seen so far, they receive our music on the radio and TV broadcasting. Even right now, I am using technology or ‘media’ in form of a computer to share my perceptions of Africa, specifically Malawi.
Food for thought. I must go, my battery is dead in 3...2...1...
Karina
Disclaimer: Reference to specific artist names and musical scores are not representative of my personal or professional preference. As a person, and a representative of Engineers Without Borders, I do not endorse any of the artists or songs mentioned.