Revision with unchanged content. The application of music in healing
within Africa has been portrayed as nearly inevitably a subject about
traditional rituals of possession adepts or shamans. It seems the
absence of music therapy as a professional practice, and an interest in
traditional cultures among anthropologists and ethnomusicolo-gists, is
responsible for that conjecture. Details in one of the chapters in this
text leave no doubt that there is a strong relationship between music
and traditional healing in Kenya. But comparable rituals are for Kenyans
also Western imports, for healing procedures in performances of catholic
charismatics clearly show that analogous trance behavior is manifest in
healing functions in which music or sound is likewise essential. What's
more, a chapter on street musicians shows that relationships between
music and healing are evident in contexts other than just religious
rituals. Scholars in musicology, anthropology, music therapy,
psychology, religious studies, African Studies, and others interested in
healing and/or music will find this text relevant. It is suggested that
a workable music therapy for Africa needs an understanding of practices
of healing in Africa that apply music, such as those discussed.
