Composing Aid – Music, Refugees, and Humanitarian Politics

Oliver Y. Shao

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English

Indiana University Press
03 October 2023

World music; African history; Refugees & political asylum

Music and arts initiatives are often praised for their capacity to aid in the rehabilitation of refugees. However, it is crucial to recognize that this celebratory view can also mask the unequal power dynamics involved in regulating forced migration.

In Composing Aid, Oliver Shao turns a critical ear towards the United Nations-run Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, one of the largest and oldest encampments in the world. This politically engaged ethnography delves into various cultural practices, including hip hop shows, traditional dances, religious ceremonies, and NGO events, in an urbanized borderland area beset with precarity and inequality. How do songs intersect with the politics of belonging in a space controlled by state and humanitarian forces? Why do camp authorities support certain musical activities over others? What can performing artists teach us about the inequities of the international refugee regime?

Offering a provocative contribution to ethnomusicological methods through its focus on activist research, Composing Aid elucidates the powerful role of music and the arts in reproducing, contesting, and reimagining the existing migratory order.

By: Oliver Y. Shao
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 666g
ISBN: 9780253067654
ISBN 10: 0253067650
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 03 October 2023
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Belonging After Relief 2. Pleasure 3. Labor For Protection 4. Immobility 5. Security 6. Peace Conclusion: Re-Composing Aid Bibliography Index

Oliver Shao is Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reviews for Composing Aid – Music, Refugees, and Humanitarian Politics

Moving beyond applied ethnomusicology into what the author describes as 'critical activist ethnomusicology' the study describes and critiques the diverse ways that different players in the refugee camps engage music and related arts to display layers of power dynamics. --Jean Kidula, author of Music in Kenyan Christianity: Logooli Religious Song