Music and Water

"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent" - Victor Hugo

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking a lot about the links between music and water.  One of our project interns, Niko, studied music for his first degree at SOAS and is now pursuing a master's in development studies.  Dr Frances Cleaver, the project director, thought it would be a useful that Niko examine the link between cosmologies and water, given his interests.  Quickly this evolved into a mini-project on the links between water and music, which has prompted me to think about many different cultural references to water in musi and how music acts as a medium to reproduce cultural and/or cosmological beliefs

After doing a little bit of internet research I learned about some references to water in African American slaves' struggles for liberation.  For example the song "Wade in the Water" is a quite well known song and this website gives a brief description about what the song means.  It is interesting how water is conveyed as a protective resource, one that would allow for successful escape.  And it is similar with the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd", which folklore suggests was used to lead slaves to freedom up north.  In this song though it is the big dipper (drinking gourd) constellation which will lead slaves to freedom, there is still a link made between water and freedom.  Although these two examples are not referring to water for drinking, hygiene, or development more broadly, songs like these still frame the way water is conceptualised on the whole. 

A couple of days ago Niko and I met with Dr Angela Impey in SOAS's music department, to try to pursue this link in a more academic fashion.  We discussed a range musicological aspects which can be linked to water, and I became fascinated with the ways that water has been linked to music in different societies and within academic settings.  This makes me wonder:  What do water-related songs mean to the people who have created them and continue to pass them on?  What can music tell us about the way environments and ecosystems are conceptualised by different people?  What are the implications of the link between water and music for development scholars and practitioners?

Institutionalised

Our team recently met with our new interns for the year, which was exciting.  It was exciting to start our second year at SOAS and to have our second round of interns from the Department for Development Studies.  We went through the usual induction procedures and told them about our project, then spoke a little about our individual interests and how we all got into water and development.

When our interns were telling us about their interests, I realised that I was unable to escape my own framework for conceptualising development problems.  One intern was interested in the erosion of state sovereignty as a result of globalisation and another was interested in structural violence in natural resources management and issues of (in)equity within systems.  I immediately realised that both interns were interested in the roles of different institutions in international development, and they are lucky that Dr Cleaver, the project Director, specialises in institutions.  Then, I suddenly remembered that a few weeks back I was thinking of the dissertation of our former scholarship student, who wrote on the role of institutions in response to the 2008 cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe.  Then it became evident that I was consumed by institutions and their role in water governance and governance more widely; that it is one of the main lenses through which I see development problems.

When I discuss the role of institutions, I am using a broader sense of the word, which encompasses both formal and informal institutions.  Having studied gender at a post-graduate degree, and having focused on gender and land rights in my master's dissertation, I have a foundation for beginning to explore debates on the interface between formal institutions (eg water committees) and social institutions (eg gender, class, race, sexuality).  Participation in local, national, and international water events, as well as discussions with the Water for Africa Research project team has also influenced my perspective on institutions for water and development.  Dr Cleaver also has some great publications on social institutions and natural resource management (eg 2002 "Reinventing Insitutions: Bricolage and Social Embeddedness of Natural Resource Management"; 1998 "Moral Ecological Rationality"), which have helped me to understand how a range of social factors play a role in water governance.

In development there is also a really big emphasis on "getting institutions right" which is more along the lines of Ostrom's work.  This body of work focuses on formal institutions, standardisation of systems, issues of rights, and other related things.  For example it has become a part of standard, mainstream policy to decentralise water supply systems, as well as systems for good water governance.  These decentralised institutions are thought to promote community management, local participation in decision making, and help to empower marginalised communities by giving them access to a space to have a voice.  Although there are some major limits to a focus primarily on formalised institutions, I can also see why they are important.

So between all the recent and ongoing debates I have with myself on the role of institutions, I realised that I have been "institutionalised" into institutional approaches to development.  I find it difficult to escape many times.  It is hard to ignore the role that institutions play in governance and governmentality.  They are so pervasive, so powerful.  I wonder,  is everything is about institutions?  How can I be more inclusive in my analysis of water and development?  Within the scope of development certainly there is a large interest in institutions, but how can we enable them to work together?  How are people able, or unable, to challenge the range of institutions that exist?  How can we improve these institutions to foster the equity of livelihoods?