West African music taught by a white (British) man

[thehighsandthelows]

Traditional West African drumming taught to some children. I was surprised to see a white man show up. Maybe naively I expected someone West African. Research shows mainly white, British employees. Some African performers featured. A lot of praise for traditional African music and reference to the training they have received in West Africa. It doesn't sit right with me but can't find similar opinions voiced? No one else seemed remotely surprised?! Lots of praise for them and positivity. Bookings for celebrating black history months! With no one black in the photos!! Grateful for any views.

[RedWingBoots]

Link to the website.

[EchoNan]

Link please so we can see for ourselves.

Otherwise, I'll just assume it might be Paul Simon fallen on hard times and trying to exploit his Ladysmith connections......

[Haggisfish3]

I’m not sure about this. Dc school have a music specialist and he does a fab job of bringing African drumming to life for kids. His entire job is music specialist. He also does loads of other types of music with the students.

[DeeCeeCherry]

Quite a few White men and women deliver African drumming workshops in schools etc

& as soon as they see Black artistes in a similar field they'll come over trying to pick your brain.

It's pretty lucrative isn't it. The Black Gold Syndrome. Copy and appropriate, make money from African creativity.

Black History Month - everyone has their fingers in the funding pot so Black artistes get less.

It seems to be more so schools based outside London who want an African artiste to deliver African culture. In London, anything goes.

[thehighsandthelows]

Yeah @DeeCeeCherry that's exactly what it was. I think what bothered me is all the 'authentic west African' references with absolutely no mention of the fact that he was clearly white and British!! The arrogance that it was his place to deliver the class and us all accept it - & everyone did! I was looking for reactions but saw none apart from 'isn't this great'

[thehighsandthelows]

Apologies for not posting the website (at least not yet). Just want to research more as there seems to be nothing but positive praise!

[EchoNan]

Coloured?

What century are you in?

[thehighsandthelows]

@saleorbouy I don't know where to start with this...

[Kanaloa]

@saleorbouy

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Coloured. Christ.

As a Scottish person the obvious difference is that there might be black Scottish people who might then want to share their love of bagpipe music. Growing up in Scotland I was surrounded by people of all colours and races.

It may surprise you to know that Britain has never been colonised by ‘coloured people’ which does add a bit of contextual appropriateness. So a white person teaching the cultural practices of an oppressed culture does have a slightly different feeling to a fictional member of said oppressed culture teaching bagpipes.

[Kanaloa]

That said a white person teaching the music wouldn’t necessarily bother me but the fact that there are no teachers from the actual culture would make me wonder how authentic and appreciative the class/music performances actually are if there is no input from those who actually belong to the culture.

[EchoNan]

[quote thehighsandthelows]@saleorbouy I don't know where to start with this...[/quote]
I do.
This is Black Mumsnetters
And @salorbouy.
I see from your posting history that you are a white guy.
So you are posting on here referring to black people as "coloured" because....?

[thehighsandthelows]

When we talk about anti-racism we talk about supporting black owned business and ensuring black women and men are seen in leadership roles. Something like this - isn't it a really obvious example of a business that a black woman/man should be profiting from and not a white man who has been to Africa?

[Seemslikeagoodidea]

Surely it's no different from an English person teaching French or German (or vice versa, on mainland Europe). The quality of teaching is more important than skin colour.

[Soontobe60]

In schools where I’ve taught, we buy in music teaching via the LA music service. We don’t get to select who our teachers are.
When we have specific themed weeks, we do our utmost to find providers that reflect the culture, so for example we have a community group that provide African drumming workshops, story telling, foods and history workshops where all the teachers are from that culture. It’s really challenging to ensure all cultures are represented without playing lip service to diversity though. There’s a massive gap in the educational market for ‘authentic’ experiences from different cultures unless your school happens to already be situated in an ethnically diverse area.

[Soontobe60]

@Seemslikeagoodidea

Surely it's no different from an English person teaching French or German (or vice versa, on mainland Europe). The quality of teaching is more important than skin colour.

I disagree. The quality and authenticity of the experience is part and parcel of the judgement on the quality of the teaching.

[OverTheRubicon]

Sounds bad. Circumstances do matter a bit here.
If he's British, doing this as a specific business or business line, and even more if it's in an area where there are plenty of others who could teach this or other similar music classes with deeper cultural understanding and heritage, he's so far out of line and so is the person who hired him (probably while patting themselves on the back for their inclusiveness).

If he's actually Ghanaian, or if he's a generalist music teacher who has to do absolutely everything but is trying to ensure that his students get a taste of different styles or something from some of their own heritage, and has travelled to learn it in a west African country, then it's a bit different. In an ideal world it would still have someone to supplement the white music teacher, but in my experience of state school budgets now, having any music teacher at all is a win.

[nancy75]

I’ve just googled for West African drum teachers in my area of London - not that many come up & surprisingly the vast majority of them do seem to be white (3 had a black person in their main photo of about 15)
With that in mind I’m guessing the school probably just booked whoever they could get with quite limited choice.
I live in a really quite diverse area & was surprised that there were so few teachers available & that most of them are white.

[thehighsandthelows]

That's not my point @Seemslikeagoodidea - the quality of teaching was good. It's the fact that as a white man he is happy to be in this role instead of facilitating west african artists to deliver the teaching.

[thehighsandthelows]

There’s a massive gap in the educational market for ‘authentic’ experiences from different cultures

I agree and we should be working to fill that gap instead of supporting unauthentic educational experiences

[Seemslikeagoodidea]

@thehighsandthelows Maybe he was the best applicant for the job, in which case do you think he should have declined the job in order to leave it vacant for a West African applicant? A West African teacher would have more lived experience of the music and culture, but if no such person applied then it would seem unreasonable to leave the post unfilled and have the children miss out on the experience.

I went to line dancing lessons years ago, and the teacher wasn't American, but it didn't affect my enjoyment of the lessons.

[EchoNan]

This is why some of us asked for a link.
Otherwise it becomes a theoretical discussion by those non black people who like to invent and justify scenarios outside of the OP.
I agree with DeeCeeCherry
Nothing further to add.

[Cascais]

Link

[PleaseDontDriveMeBlind]

As a Scottish person the obvious difference is that there might be black Scottish people who might then want to share their love of bagpipe music.

I do have a close friend who was raised in Nigeria, but is white, so it can happen the other way around... however that is clearly not this! - not envy, more unimpressed dismay I suppose. YANBU OP.

[TheBlackDarner]

Another thread on BlackMumsnet filling up with irrelevant non black opinions.
Gotta keep that "authentic" non black drumming man in business in Black History Month.