Inspiring musical and cultural arts in schools
What you need to know:
- If we start to teach one nursery student about our culture, then the next student would be able to understand their culture.
I have never experienced a ceremony that welcomed me with a painting exhibition, music and live singing and performance from children like Aga Khan Primary School did during a handover event of a 100-year-old piano. This piano was being donated to the school by a renowned musician and maestro, Afraaz Mulji on Friday March 25, 2022 in Dar es Salaam.
It was an epic event that was essentially a celebration of arts and culture to impact young and growing children in the world of art and help them build the capacity to transcend social economic, political, religious boundaries that usually tear people apart.
At 23, multidisciplinary artist, public intellectual curator and music composer Afraaz Mulji and his family decided to donate their antique piano to the school as gift and entrusting to them the legacy of musical arts to making sure music is given the importance and magnitude that it deserves as he addressed the guests during the ceremony on the importance of learning music at young age.
“Learning music at young age helps improves things like cognitive development, physical development and linguistic skills so children who are exposed to music have their minds open. The ceremony is all about openness and willingness to learn and to grow together,” said Mulji.
“In addition, it is also an opportunity to showcase that there is talent in Tanzania and that we need to nurture it and foster it and it starts from a young age,” he said. That’s why the piano will be accessible kids in nursery up to secondary school.
During the ceremony 12-year-old Chloe Gideon who is in standard six, sang the nation anthem so beautifully. She explained to me how the school helped create a better her in music and encourages other children who have stage fright to be bold and show their talent.
“I like performing because I can give people courage to beat stage fright. Everybody has been on stage before, for example in front of your family presenting something to them,” she says.
School CEO, Shelina Walli believes that if we start to teach one nursery student about our culture, then the next student would be able to understand their culture. She strives to make sure her students excell and appreciate their citizenry, culture and norms with proper ethics and values so they do not to forget where they come from
