May
17
Filed Under (Beninese culture, Ethnomusicology) by Rob on 17-05-2010

WOOOHOOOO!

After a year’s reasearch and a couple of years’ transcribing, analysing and writing-up, Rob’s thesis is finally complete:

The title of the thesis is “The Reclamation of Vodun Song Genres for Christian Worship in the Benin Republic” and looks at how those converting from vodun (voodoo) to Christianity have taken their music with them and modified it for church use. Is this bad for the church? Is there such a thing as evil music? Can a drumbeat alone cause someone to fall into a trance? Will music of vodun origin in church call evil spirits in? What do the vodun folk think about Christians using ‘their’ music?

All of these are issues treated in the thesis (plus many more!) I’ve come to some pretty clear conclusions based on my extensive research in southern Benin, but am not about to share all of those on a blog! You’ll just have to read the finished article when it’s available!

Meanwhile, here are a couple of ‘sneak previews’:

More info will follow in a subsequent post on what I learned – directly and indirectly – in doing this thesis and how this will be of use to my work and to the broader fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology, chuch history and African studies.



Comments:
2 Comments posted on "It is finished!"
Reggie on May 18th, 2010 at 7:20 am #

Wow. Congratulations.


anne on May 18th, 2010 at 6:35 pm #

hooray