“Integrating Music in History Education”
Read and Click through the SlideShare presentation:
“The Beatles: The Original Boy Band in the Global Village”
The musical "artifact" that I chose was the Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley and Jamaican disc jockey named King Sporty which came out in the 1980's on the Confrontation album. Below is a music video and the lyrics to the song.
Here is another video as well:
There was a buffalo soldier in the heart of america,
Stolen from africa, brought to america,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.
I mean it, when I analyze the stench -
To me it makes a lot of sense:
How the dreadlock rasta was the buffalo soldier,
And he was taken from africa, brought to america,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.
Said he was a buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta -
Buffalo soldier in the heart of america.
If you know your history,
Then you would know where you coming from,
Then you wouldnt have to ask me,
Who the eck do I think I am.
Im just a buffalo soldier in the heart of america,
Stolen from africa, brought to america,
Said he was fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Said he was a buffalo soldier win the war for america.
Dreadie, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Buffalo soldier troddin through the land, wo-ho-ooh!
Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand,
Troddin through the land, yea-hea, yea-ea.
Said he was a buffalo soldier win the war for america;
Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta,
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival;
Driven from the mainland to the heart of the caribbean.
Singing, woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Troddin through san juan in the arms of america;
Troddin through jamaica, a buffalo soldier# -
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival:
Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta.
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy!
Woy yoy yoy, woy yoy-yoy yoy,
Woy yoy yoy yoy, yoy yoy-yoy yoy! /fadeout/
First of all, for people to truly understand the lyrics in the historical context which Marley is referring to, one must know what a Buffalo Soldier is and their contribution to the history of the United States. There are several important websites that help make sense of this part of history such as:
Buffalo Soldier Wikipedia Page
Forgotten American History Page
Memorial of the Ninth Cavalry
Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Wars
Who Are The Buffalo Soldiers?
Buffalo Soldiers and the Constitution
I remember when I first heard this song. I was in middle school and thought it had a cool beat. I also thought that it had a good message, but didn't think much more about it--except thinking what is a buffalo soldier? Being young and naive, I assumed it was slang for something I didn't know anything about.
Now, re-listening to this song, I realize the true importance of it and how we have been mis-educated in regards to American history. It is interesting to see what is taught, not taught, or conveniently left out in our schools. In reading information I found in the above mentioned websites I have been re-educated. I catch this happening a lot in regards to history. I think maybe that is why I am so fascinated and passionate about learning about the past. According to Wikipedia, the title and lyrics to Bob Marley's song Buffalo Soldier refer to the black U.S. cavalry regiments known as "buffalo soldiers" that fought the Indian Wars after 1866. The "buffalo soldiers" were the first peace time all black regiments in the regular U.S. army. Many cultural historians have criticized this movement because many times this cavalry were known as "shock troops" meaning that they were the first to go in against the enemy and clearly had the biggest chance of death. Here is a video that tells a little about the Buffalo Soldiers history.
Here is a video done by actual buffalo soldiers
If I was to teach this to a group of middle school students, we would first listen to the song and have them interpret what the lyrics meant, what Marley was referring to by the buffalo soldiers, and what is the over-arching message? Once students have analyzed that, I think it would be important to teach them a little bit about the buffalo soldiers from this time period. This would be a good place to share the timeline. I believe that this timeline could be used in a lecture about the history of the Buffalo Soldier prior to them doing their research on the ninth and tenth cavalries. This way students have some prior knowledge going into their topic and will be able to narrow their information.One way we could do this is by having them pair up and research one of the cavalries and report to the class what they learned. They could also state what they didn't know previously to this assignment, and how this information may be relevant in today's world.
Here is my timeline which I made into a movie that highlights African Americans in the armed forces from 1812-present.
We could then open this up into a discussion on race relations, discrimination, racism and prejudice. What examples do we see in our society that deal with these issues? When you see this, what do you do? What should you do? How can we change this in society? One way to look at these issues is to look at images in the media throughout history. On the website Planet Tolerance, they do exactly this. The lesson is entitled Images in Action. Historical and modern day images often contain hidden messages about us, about others and about our world. These subtle lessons lie just beneath the surface. In order to see them, we must replace passive consumption of images with critical analysis. We can no longer accept a sculpture or a logo at face value. We must dig deeper. We must ask questions about why we perceive things the way we do. I would like to have students explore this site. After they have had time to explore and take the information in, I would end the lesson with having them do the following:
Based on your own research, what types of prejudice and racism do you think the buffalo soldiers were faced with? Draw a picture and explain it. Then, have students draw the depiction that the buffalo soldier should have been viewed as and explain it. Have them share these with the class.
Some other useful websites are as follows:
Tolerance
Fight Hate and Promote Tolerance
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