Music and Health in Kenya - Sound Spirituality and Altered Consciousness Juxtaposed with Emotions

The application of music in healing within Africa has been portrayed as nearly inevitably a subject about traditional rituals of possession adepts or shamans. It seems the absence of music therapy as a professional practice and an interest in traditional cultures among anthropologists and ethnomusicolo­gists is responsible for that conjecture. Details in one of the chapters in this text leave no doubt that there is a strong relationship between music and traditional healing in Kenya. But comparable rituals are for Kenyans also Western imports for healing procedures in performances of catholic charismatics clearly show that analogous trance behavior is manifest in healing functions in which music or sound is likewise essential. What's more a chapter on street musicians shows that relationships between music and healing are evident in contexts other than just religious rituals. Scholars in musicology anthropology music therapy psychology religious studies African Studies and others interested in healing and/or music will find this text relevant. It is suggested that a workable music therapy for Africa needs an understanding of practices of healing in Africa that apply music such as those discussed.