Black history event to deliver musical message

By: Cara Latham
   BORDENTOWN CITY — To listen to the songs the slaves sang, to draw inspiration from them, and to use them as a stepping stone to move forward in the world.
   That’s the message that members of the committee organizing the Black History Month event taking place Saturday at Shiloh Baptist Church are hoping to deliver, especially to young people.
   This year’s event — "The Importance of African Music" — will examine "the Negro plight through song and how the songs were inspired, which made them unique and different," said Dena Jones, one of the committee members.
   Starting with the slave trade and following up to the present, organizers will use the songs to detail black history, said Illean Fussell, who has done the research and put the program together.
   Ms. Jones said the most important part of the program is the message, which is to show young people that the songs should not portray victimization, and also what importance they served at the time, what young people are supposed to take from the songs, and how they should use them today to move on in the world.
   "These songs and times were to be used as inspirations, and there are things that we can do like tell the story to our young people," she said, adding that she hopes they will build on the foundation given to them by the songs, in order to make sure something as inhumane as slavery cannot happen again.
   "The only way you can do that is to take what we’re given from these songs," Ms. Jones said. The slaves found a way to be happy through their songs, she said.
   "The charge here is for people to know God, make sure you’re educated, and make sure you know how to get along in the world," she said. If they don’t understand they are to do better, "they don’t have any way of building a foundation, of any way of moving forward."
   The program will start with a basic introduction, and then throughout the program the songs will be used as examples, Ms. Jones said.
   Ms. Fussell said that slaves were not allowed to talk or communicate, and the music was their language.
   "We’ll be singing songs of sorrow, work songs and songs that the children sang at that time," she said. "This is how we got to know what our history was about and what they had to do to survive."
   One song, called "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," depicts their loneliness and how they longed for their country, she said.
   It was "about being separated from Africa and being stripped of everything they knew," she said. "They weren’t happy campers. They didn’t want to be slaves."
   Most of the songs have double meanings, and some even are religious, she added. There are mournful songs, escape songs and war songs.
   One of the songs, "Follow the Drinking Gourd," sometimes known as "The Big Dipper," tells the slaves how to escape to the North by following the constellation, which points to the North Star.
   Members of the church who volunteered to participate in the program will be singing the songs.
   Ms. Fussell said she chose the topic because it was something new that the church hadn’t done before.
   "It’s very interesting (to see) how it (song) was used to communicate," she said. "They are all very moving and touching."
   For Ms. Fussell, the experience of putting the program together also was personal.
   "I did not know either of my grandparents; I never saw them," she said. "So for me, this is a learning experience."
   The event will start at 3 p.m. at the church, located on Elizabeth Street. It should last about an hour, said Ms. Jones. The event is open to the community, and she said she hopes it will yield a good turnout, especially among children of all ages.