musings & echoes

One of the things I love most in the world is languages - not just the language of words, the dialects of body language, music, food, emotions, art - there are so many. The past couple of nights, I've gone to see this Congolese band play at one of the hotels around Gulu.

The Pearl Afrique band plays everything from La Bomba to Celine Dion's heart rendering Titanic theme song (this one is more ear-splitting than anything else), but their specialty of course is Congolese music. The music is quite complex - it involves guitars, a bass, keyboards, two types of drums, singers, a mandolin, and a sax. As I was listening last night, I was struck by how similar the rhythm is to some latino music. I could very well have been listening to a merengue band in El Salvador for all the similarities - it was beautiful.

Then I started thinking about how some languages sound similar, even though they have little or no relation to one another. When I hear people speak Farsi, I feel like I should be able to understand them - because it sounds so much like French. Even though our languages got scrambled at Babel, we are still given hints of a universalism - things everyone appreciates, even if they can't communicate through words.

So, how did the congolese culture pick up this carribbean music - or vice versa? How come the dance moves look so similar to cubano salsa? I think these are echoes; reminders that at one time human beings spoke one language. We are united by more than just similar dna - our souls come from the same Creator, who endowed all of us with an appreciation for beauty.

Since these are sort of random musings, I'd love to hear anybody's thoughts on this...