Paul & Linda Neeley
Ethnomusicology

A Ministry Department of Artists in Christian Testimony Intl since 1999
 

After I had been in the African village for a couple of years, I realized the people group had no indigenous Christmas songs. They had borrowed some from other groups, but none were in their language or music style. 

So... my wife and I commissioned a group of composers to create songs based on relevant biblical passages. We went so far as to write a script, something like a 'radio play' with voices of the characters speaking to connect the songs. Some song genres had a very low text load, so a song would get 1-2 verses. Another song genre could take a very high text load, so all of Mary's Magnificat was done that way.

 The production was recorded on an hour-long cassette and distributed in the area, and was quite popular. A couple of years later, the idea was born to take the production to some of the villages and do it live. This brought a whole new depth, as now it became a participatory event. We would arrange a village dance, but do only the Christmas songs. It was socially a lot like a 'regular' village dance except that we said no alcohol should be brought. Most of the villages had no electricity, but someone found a battery-powered megaphone. So the readers of scripture used it, and during the songs, someone would hold it to the lead singer's mouth (most of the music was accompanied by a percussion ensemble and was quite loud). It worked very well, actually exceeded my expectations. Almost the whole village would turn out for the dance. The songs were in call-and-response form, so the people learned the response parts to each song in less than a minute and sung them with gusto, dancing in a circle in the moonlight. And they paid attention to the Scripture readings between songs. I came away from these 'concert/dance events' convinced that while the majority of people were not Christians (90%), most people in the village would now be able to accurately tell you the Christmas story the next morning because it was a "participatory didactic" medium, to use Nathan Corbitt's phrase about teaching.

 It is interesting that the majority of the musicians and singers involved were not Christians. They were chosen (by the local Christians) for the composition, recording and live performances because of their musical skills. They were not anti-Christian, but they weren't following Jesus alone. The people who did the voices (reading Scripture) were all committed Christians.

 I call the performances "Christmas song & dance pre-evangelism."  Previously, very few people in some of the villages would have been able to tell the Christmas story, though they may have heard the name of Jesus. Through live performances, it spread like yeast. Some people already knew the story and songs from the cassette while others were hearing it for the first time in the context of a village dance. In a society where over 80% of the people are not literate, and many of them literally won't set foot in a church building because of religious taboos, putting the Christmas story in the favorable context of a village dance was the best way to share the message. Note that I didn't say 'village concert' where people would watch - I said "dance" so that the maximum number of people can actively participate in moving and singing and learning the story.

 It's exciting that after 50+ years of hearing the Gospel in a foreign language, the Achoday¹ people finally have their own Christmas carols.  They sound not a whit like ours, backed with intricate polyrhythms on percussion, but the people are able to sing them with all their heart. A new tradition has been born in conjunction with news of a God-man child being born.

Linda Neeley has been involved with Bible translation (through Wycliffe) since 1979, and co-led a team that completed the Achoday NT translation in Ghana. Paul has been involved with music and missions since 1988. He is co-founder and president of the International Council of Ethnodoxologists, a group of people around the world involved in using culturally-appropriate music in Christian ministries www.worldofworship.org.  He is also an author, journal editor, performing musician, ethnomusicology professor, and consultant in 'music and missions' for numerous groups. This story is an example of using
ethnomusicology in missions.

¹ The 15,000 Achoday people live in eastern Ghana (W. Africa). The name is spelled "Akyode" in the orthography of Ghana.