All music tells some kind of story, but I recently heard a song that was eerily similar to our recent studies in class. The song "Ten Million Slaves" by Otis Taylor is about the "middle passage" for slaves, that being the trip from Africa to America. Here is a link to the lyrics. The song is about how, as Otis says, "Ten million slaves crossed that Ocean / They had shackles on Their Legs", and how the slaves back then had no idea where they were going or what they were doing.
The song parallels many of the horrible conditions slaves had to live through in the book A Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass, including the lack of adequate food as mentioned in the line "Food goes bad, food looks Rancid / But they ate it anyway". Slaves lived horrible lives, and it is very depressing to think that some were allowed to starve because owners did not want to spend money on feeding their workers.
Here is a video of the song.
Apart from this song in particular, the entire album, called "Recapturing the Banjo", tells another surprising story. If you were asked where the banjo was from you would probably say the south. That is what most people, me included, have commonly thought. But recently I learned that that is incorrect, the banjo actually originated in Africa. Although throughout their adaptations to American music banjos have changed greatly, they have their origins in Africa. Otis Taylor decided to inform the public, and he made that album to tell a bit of history while he made the music he loves.
I doubt this is the only piece of musical history that is not common knowledge, so when I get a chance I intend to look into it more.
When you hear the term Child Labor, almost every one, me included, immediatly has a very negative idea of what it is. But recently I read something that made me question what I thought.
In class we are currently talking about slavery, and to many people, child laborers seem to be slaves. Child labor is rampant throughout developing countries, and there has been an uproar because of companies like Nike using factories that employ kids. Due to the public anger Nike closed down these factories. But did this help anyone?
In the article I read, linked here, the author brought up a different moral point. He states that if the kids in poor families of developing areas did not work they would end up even worse off. With children working to "augment household income" as the author Adam Hersh says, they will most likely end up doing even worse things. These could include prostitution, drug trafficing or even becoming child soldiers. Additionally the money they earn, while it may not be much, is often enough to ensure that they do not starve.
The other side of the argument has its own valuable points though. Child labor often leads to kids getting little to no education, and of course some labor is unhealthy. Not to mention it is very illegal by International standards.
This is a tough question. Whether or not children should work in factories is very circumstantial and will be debated for a long time. As of right now I have no clear opinion. I understand that child labor is a bad thing, but I also feel compassion for young children who work all day in order to have enough to eat.
I will most likely revisit this topic at sometime, but until then comment and leave your own opinion.
