“How Can We Sing in a Strange Land?” The Pastoral Musician as a Master Griot/Griotte

The writer of Psalm 137 asks a question that poignantly resonates with the experiences of enslaved Africans who were taken captive, exiled from their homelands, and told to forget their languages, worship practices, and tribal traditions. Their dehumanization was intensified by expectations that “required a song and . . . mirth.” The question was “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” In response to this question of engaging in song as a community while in a strange land of deep and persistent systemic suffering, enslaved African-descended people founded a unique tradition within Christianity that responded to their persistent suffering by naming said suffering and actively engaging their suffering in a variety of ways that empowered them to survive and thrive. A central question energizing this thesis is, “How do we, through our music ministry leadership, engage and assist communities whose suffering is so great that they have lost their song and/or their ability to sing?” In response to this question, this thesis claims that the Black Church tradition offers vital insights for pastoral musicians seeking to empower and enable song in communities impacted by deep and persistent suffering given its origins in suffering and wide range of responses to suffering.