Making Indigenous Yao Instruments
Coke bottles. Old used guitar strings. Scraps of wood. Bottle caps. Nails. From a Western mentality, these would be things found in the green recycled bins that are in front of homes every week to be taken away. But here in Africa, these are the elements that make up indigenous instruments that are used to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. They replace things such as electric guitars, bass guitars and keyboards which are found in churches and used by worship teams across the United States and Europe.
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Since we have been here in Mozambique, working among the Yao people of the Niassa province, we have been asking the Lord to release the indigenous sounds that lie dormant within the Yao believers. Since the Muslims came over 100 years ago, and the Yao people embraced Islam, it has been difficult for the Yao people, even believers, to be musical people. Often, we have seen the Yao people borrow sounds from the Chichewa, Nyanja or Makhua people after conversion, yet it seems as though their own indigenous expression of worship has somehow become lost. This is what we are praying will be drawn out of the Yao believers we are discipling.
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Last Sunday during the church service, I was observing a young man, Kaisi, who is a new believer and who has just been baptized along with his wife. He was really engaged in the worship of YHWH, and was clapping in time with the songs with beautiful rhythm. It was then that the Lord spoke to me about Kaisi becoming a worship leader in the Church of Assumane. I felt as though the Lord was showing me that he would lead a group of young people from the church in making indigenous Yao instruments, and teaching them how to play them, practicing weekly for the worship time in church on Sunday mornings.
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Today, we saw some history in the making. Kaisi brought a group of youth who have been involved in the church to begin making these indigenous Yao instruments. We all met in our temporary grass church building. I have seen some things that other African tribes have used across Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania for their worship instruments, and brought a big box full of those things, which can be found along dirt roads in any given Yao village, along with a hammer and saw, and let them at it. We talked together. I read Psalm 150 about the different instruments used to praise the Lord. Kaisi prayed. Then the fun began. These guys began to make some of the coolest indigenous instruments I have seen yet here in Africa. Then the cool thing is how they made them sound along with Yao worship songs after they had finished making them. They will now continue to look for other materials found locally to make more instruments, and will practice every week under Kaisi’s leadership. The Yao people of Niassa are finding their sound! Praise the Lord!!!
.
Coke bottles. Old used guitar strings. Scraps of wood. Bottle caps. Nails. From a Western mentality, these would be things found in the green recycled bins that are in front of homes every week to be taken away. But here in Africa, these are the elements that make up indigenous instruments that are used to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. They replace things such as electric guitars, bass guitars and keyboards which are found in churches and used by worship teams across the United States and Europe.
.
Since we have been here in Mozambique, working among the Yao people of the Niassa province, we have been asking the Lord to release the indigenous sounds that lie dormant within the Yao believers. Since the Muslims came over 100 years ago, and the Yao people embraced Islam, it has been difficult for the Yao people, even believers, to be musical people. Often, we have seen the Yao people borrow sounds from the Chichewa, Nyanja or Makhua people after conversion, yet it seems as though their own indigenous expression of worship has somehow become lost. This is what we are praying will be drawn out of the Yao believers we are discipling.
.
Last Sunday during the church service, I was observing a young man, Kaisi, who is a new believer and who has just been baptized along with his wife. He was really engaged in the worship of YHWH, and was clapping in time with the songs with beautiful rhythm. It was then that the Lord spoke to me about Kaisi becoming a worship leader in the Church of Assumane. I felt as though the Lord was showing me that he would lead a group of young people from the church in making indigenous Yao instruments, and teaching them how to play them, practicing weekly for the worship time in church on Sunday mornings.
.
Today, we saw some history in the making. Kaisi brought a group of youth who have been involved in the church to begin making these indigenous Yao instruments. We all met in our temporary grass church building. I have seen some things that other African tribes have used across Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania for their worship instruments, and brought a big box full of those things, which can be found along dirt roads in any given Yao village, along with a hammer and saw, and let them at it. We talked together. I read Psalm 150 about the different instruments used to praise the Lord. Kaisi prayed. Then the fun began. These guys began to make some of the coolest indigenous instruments I have seen yet here in Africa. Then the cool thing is how they made them sound along with Yao worship songs after they had finished making them. They will now continue to look for other materials found locally to make more instruments, and will practice every week under Kaisi’s leadership. The Yao people of Niassa are finding their sound! Praise the Lord!!!
.
Christian Jung
