Philanthrocapitalism_ How Giving Can Save the World - Matthew Bishop [43]
Pascasie’s basket-weaving collective is called Agaseke K’amaho Ro, “Let’s Hold on to Each Other.” Her story is told in greater detail in Kimberley Sevcik and Beth O’Donnell’s beautiful book, Angels in Africa.
One of the most endearing, poignant gifts of peace and reconciliation I’ve ever encountered is the music of the Vallenato children of Colombia. Vallenato music springs from the part of Colombia that borders the Caribbean, especially the state of Cesar and its more than 450-year-old capital city, Valledupar, which sits back from the coast in the mountainous tropical forest. For forty years, the area has been plagued by some of the worst violence between guerrillas and paramilitary forces, with many innocent victims, including children.
In spite of the constant threat of harm, children, ranging in age from six to twelve, come from farms and poor rural villages to learn Vallenato music at the school of Andres Gil, who teaches them to play accordions, drums, and washboards, the “orchestra” of their native culture. They play and sing in small groups, wearing traditional clothing, including (for the boys) two-tone straw hats. And they perform undaunted by the danger and determined that their music, by keeping their culture alive, will help to overcome death and destruction.
In my second term as president, I heard the Vallenato children twice, once at a White House Christmas party, and again when I visited Cartagena, Colombia, in 2000 to express support for President Pastrana’s efforts to end the long civil conflict. The children played for us in an open plaza and coaxed Pastrana, Chelsea, and me into dancing with them.
The Vallenato children’s biggest promoter was the Colombian culture minister, Consuelo Araujo. About a year after I was in Cartagena, the FARC guerrillas, who hated the defiance of the children but could do nothing to them, kidnapped Consuelo, took her deep into the mountains, and murdered her on September 30, 2001. The children had composed a song asking FARC to release her, but they remained deaf to the music of peace.
In June 2002, I went back to Cartagena during the presidential transition from Andres Pastrana to Alvaro Uribe to urge the international businesses operating there not to give up on the country. When I got off the plane, the Vallenato children were there, still playing and singing and accompanied by the then minister of culture, Consuelo’s thirty-one-year-old niece. Consuelo’s widower had also joined government service, giving up his successful law practice to become a prosecutor, a very dangerous job in Colombia. My greeters gave me a brightly colored, hand-woven bracelet. Although almost no one does it, traditionally you’re supposed to wear the bracelet until it wears out and falls off. More than five years later, I’m still wearing mine, a reminder of how brave the Colombians are, how determined they are to restore peace and preserve Latin America’s oldest democracy, and how fortunate I am to live in a country without the daily threat of kidnapping and killing.
In the past five years I’ve seen the Vallenato children perform three more times, including at the dedication of my presidential library, where they shared a rain-drenched stage with Bono and The Edge of U2. They’re wonderful, talented kids who’ve seen more than children their age should. Andres Gil has taught them well. But it is the power of their spirit that has touched the hearts of Colombians and made their two CDs best sellers. I wish every conflict area had a teacher like Maestro Gil and children like Los Niños Vallenatos.
Most people who will read this book live in places where the problems are less profound and visible than the agonizing ones I’ve written about. But there are people who need new beginnings everywhere. And there are good people and organizations trying to help them. If you live in a community with people from different ethnic and religious groups, your local school or congregation probably has a program to promote dialogue and understanding among the students. If there isn’t such a program you could