In “Throw Down Your Heart”, musician Bela Fleck honors the roots of banjo music by traveling to its origins in Africa to record an album. He wants people to know that the banjo is of African decent, not Southern. While in the village of Jinja, in Uganda, East Africa, we meet a young man named Walusimbi, a professional folk musician. He explains how music is everywhere and in everything. It unites us all.
Culturally, it is common to believe that only men play musical instruments, but Ruth Akello is the exception to that rule. She is the only woman in Jinja that plays an instrument. Her peers call her a wizard while others wonder why God made her, “like a boy”. Originally she was timid and feared playing with the men, but now, she says it actually makes her feel free. I was shocked to learn that they are so far behind us in regards to women’s equal rights. Especially after I was feeling so connected to them through the music they were producing with instruments they made from hand with materials readily available to them. Quite different from how elaborately we manufacture our instruments in the states. Raw and unmanufactured, the African banjo is used to preserve traditions and culture.
VPA World Cultures 