I used to wonder why they made musicals out of dark stories like Les Miserables and even Fiddler on the Roof. Operas are one thing, but musicals are supposed to be happy-go-lucky, right?

But my favorite story of South Africa is the musical Sarafina! It reminds me that even when people are going through horrors and oppression that there is still childhood, music, laughter and joy. There is still progress and hope. It seems to me sometimes that musicals are more realistic than real-life dramas, in a metaphorical sense. Instead of being purely horrified, we see both sides, the good and the bad, the yin and the yang.

I don’t even understand the words to the musical soundtrack, but when I listen, I hear truth.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.