_The Creative Wealth of Nations_

# _The Arts and Inclusion_

The role of the performing arts — and indeed other cultural mediums — to advance social inclusion is well-known, but not necessarily well quantified. In South Africa, for example, music was a major player in fuelling the movement against apartheid. Today, in República Bolivariana de Venezuela, despite the political challenges in that nation, the one program hailed from Latin America to North America and elsewhere is El Sistema, a music program that has worked tirelessly to bring disadvantaged kids from a path of risk to a path of promise. In Brazil, AfroReggae is helping young people to emerge from an existence riddled with drugs and violence in the favelas of Rio.

But differences in interpretations of music, dance, or other areas can breed tensions. Such statements as “Asians cannot interpret Bach as well as Germans,” or “Germans cannot really be good at African drumming,” are common. The threads of such thinking may even be why many cultural institutions can they themselves be exclusive. This is often oiled by entrenched social norms and identity of both the excluded and the included.

On the issue of human identity and its variable manifestations, at the Bali 2013 World Culture Forum Sen asked, “Should we allow ourselves to be categorized – and partitioned - in terms of exactly one of our many identities and affiliations?”<sup>43</sup> Undoubtedly, “our inherited traditions are important, given by our race, religion, language, nationality, or ethnicity, but there is a plurality of identifications even here. And we can acquire new identities in terms of location, education, profession, politics, and social commitment.”<sup>44</sup> As Sen emphasizes, to “overlook the inescapable plurality in our identities and to place us into a singular box of one identity – be it race, or religion, or community, or whatever - is a remarkably efficient way of misunderstanding nearly everyone in the world.”<sup>45</sup> Consider the recent conflict in the West African nation of Mali, a place known for its contribution to the cradle of African music. As the fighting intensified there in 2012 — its population was estimated at 14.85 million with a GDP of USD$10.39 billion in that year — it is easy to explain why Mali’s GDP contracted by 0.4 percent and inflation shot up to 5.4 percent.<sup>46</sup> But, as is true in any war, the cost of human lives lost and dreams shattered will perhaps never be known. And as is always the case in such conflicts, women and children are especially vulnerable. Human Rights Watch reports: In addition to “pillaging of hospitals, schools, aid agencies, warehouses, banks, and government buildings,” Mali did not escape the use of child soldiers and the raping of women.<sup>47</sup> While Mali’s conflict can be linked to various aspects, including economics and politics, cultural confusion and intolerance exacerbated the situation. Whereas “music anchors every ceremony, from births and circumcisions to weddings and prayers for rains” in Mali, a top Islamist

> 43 Amartya Sen, “Our Past and Our Future” (lecture, Bali 2013 World Culture Forum, Bali International Conventional Centre, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, November 25, 2013), accessed April 18, 2014, <u>http://wcfina.org/files/2013/12/Prof-Amartya_Sen_Speech_World-Culture-Forum_Bali.pdf.</u> 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid.

> 46 The population, GPD, and inflation figures are from here: The World Bank. Mali, accessed April 19, <u>http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mali.</u>

47 “World Report 2013: Events of 2012,” Human Rights Watch, 2013, accessed May 1, 2014, <u>http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/mali?page=1.</u> <mark>15</mark>