IDU

ASSESSMENT
Introduction
I will refer to the right to no torture because it is one of the major rights in the world and it is still violated all
over the world every day. The statement of inquiry is Art represents an portant medium of
communication via which key messages of social injustice can be conveyed.

I think this means that when the slaves were being ill-treated and living in harsh and
unbelievable conditions and werent allowed to communicate to other slaves they used
music to show their feelings and emotions and to talk to other slaves or people in forms of
art.

People who will listen to the song I made with my group will understand that it is about
torture that a form of art (maybe an art piece or music) can share a message about human
rights violations quite well.

Geography
Torture happens everywhere and every day and you could be doing it without even knowing it. It can go from
kicking a ball against your friend to imprisoning and hurting children etc. Over the last 5 years Amnesty
International (a non-governmental organization focused on human rights) has reported torture in around
141 countries- 3 quarters of the world. Torture mostly occurs in places of detention because it allows torture
to be a secret or hidden problem to the world.

The top 10 countries with most torture and the number of referrals in 2015:

1. Sri Lanka 326 referrals

2. Iran 158 referrals
3. Pakistan 133 referrals
4. Democratic Republic of Congo 84 referrals
5. Turkey 75 referrals
6. Afghanistan 70 referrals
7. India 53 referrals
8. Eritrea 48 referrals
9. Nigeria 46 referrals
10. Iraq 43 referrals

https://withouttorture.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/facebook-quotes-nowak2.jpg

Causes (history)

The main aim of torture is to destroy the self-esteem of the person. The torturer tries to destroy the
personal integrity by methods that cause maximum physical and mental pain and ensure gravest
humiliation.- (https://worldwithouttorture.org/2012/10/11/ten-facts-to-know-about-torture/)

The human right to no torture is mostly violated in places of detention to get people to give information or
sign a confession or just to punish. Its done in places like these because torture is then a secret or a hidden
problem and no one really cares about it.

In the past torture, has been used to make people do what others want them to do or to punish them mentally
or physically for example the slaves who worked on farms were forced to work in harsh conditions and treated
very badly, if any rose to stop it they would have been beaten, whipped, killed, or punished in other ways of
torture to get them to never do it again. Torture also brings fears in the hearts and minds of people who
experience it and makes them afraid of people who can do it to them and will then unwillingly follow their
commands.

https://19thcenturywellington.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/mcpherson-pg-305.jpg

The blues originates from plantation and farms in the deep south of the US, for example Louisiana and
th
Mississippi in the 20 century. Slaves mostly worked in vegetable/cotton fields all day long. The slaves were
not paid well or fed well.

Consequences (music)
While the Afro-Americans were being forced into slaves and forced to work in harsh conditions on farms
and/or fields they were forbidden to talk or communicate to other slaves of to the owners. If they did, they
would have been punished/tortured because the field/farm owners thought this would lead to distractions
and less productivity. The slaves were being treated badly and had most of their rights taken away from them
and how they channelled their emotions and feelings into songs to communicate to other slaves even if they
couldnt speak the same language. The songs started off as field hollers, work songs and spirituals. Some of
the farm/field owners encouraged the songs because they thought it would make the slaves happier and
improve productivity and make the chances less that they would run-away. Wherever it could the black music
flourished and became very popular. Unlike those owners, some field/farm owners banned the songs because
they thought it would start a message and would make the slaves more rebellious.

In the early nineteenth century, white entertainers started performing performance, skits, songs in blackface
making it more popular. At the turn of the twentieth century the Blues started to develop in the deep south of
the US. Most historians recall the emergence of the Blues around 1890. Around the twentieth century the
blacks had been going into urban areas and cities of the South in multiplying and increasing numbers but in
1910 huge numbers of blacks began a migration to the urban places of the North for example Chicago, and as
they were getting used to the cities and settling in, so did the Blues and the Blues had become even more
popular and in the 1940s the blues even urbanized an off-shoot called rhythm and blues which was a very
close to rock and roll and was the reason rock and roll was created.

https://trueblueser.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/image1.png

Conclusion/Reflection

I understand now that many forms of art especially music can represent an important medium of
communication via which key messages of social injustice can be conveyed for example of how the slaves were
being treated badly and had most of their rights taken away from them and how they channelled their
emotions and feelings into songs to communicate to other slaves even if they couldnt speak the same
language.

I can now fully understand how multiple topics

in one subject can relate and/or be in another
subject which helped me to understand the
different subjects in this case I&S and Music
from different perspectives. It helped me see
the topics in deeper depth that we learnt.
Before this IDU I did not think I could corporate
two different subjects and combine my
knowledge of two different subjects to relate
to real life. I feel like I can now analyse the
lyrics in music and relate that to how people
suffered or how the felt when they were
writing their song and what rights did they
have that were being violated if they were.
I always thought I was a quick learner but before this IDU assessment I was unaware of the skills needed to do
this assessment. I am sure that the benefits of this assessment include being able to draw more links between
subjects which arent only I&S and music but also other subjects and other areas in subjects. Another benefit
would also be that it helped me to see all the subjects and other education as a whole, instead of just different
topics/subjects.

There are advantages and disadvantages with synthesizing, disadvantages can be that in one subject it would
be hard and tricky to make connections/links to another subject while the other subject would be easier to
make links, to the subject where I cant make any links. This would make the work confusing because I would
only understand the easy subject with easy links and not the other one making a drawback on the education.
Another thing I think is that it is easier to think of things separately so it is easier to understand in my brain. As
I am an IB learner I feel sure I can synthesize within a subject such as concluding in essays but before this IDU
assessment I have never done so between subjects before.

I think my strengths were that I am a fast learner and I can understand a lot of information in a short time
which helped me a lot with this IDU project because we were given a lot of information from not only one
subject but from two subjects and we had to make links and connections between the information.

One of my weaknesses would be that once I learn something or get interested in one subject, that it is hard to
compare/synthesize the subject to another subject or compare another subject to the subject I am interested
in because I cannot get my mind off the subject I am interested in or make as many links between them
because my mind is focused on another subject. This can be a problem when I am trying to draw together
information together from different areas in the subject.

I think this assessment will come to help me later in life when I am trying to draw/get information together
from different areas maybe in my future job or homework. I learnt that the people who wrote blues or the
people who helped produce the blues wrote mostly about something in their life or about someone in their
life. I learnt that the blues originated from people who had their rights being violated. I feel like I have acquired
a lot of skills during this assessment, these skills include:
 Higher creativity
I express my ideas and opinions more
I plan a lot more than I used to in many subjects
I am a lot more curious and ask more questions in my classes
I concentrate more to try and reach a higher level of communication, understanding, knowledge and
collaboration.
My interests have sparked and now I have a lot more interest for example I am fascinated by how
slaves could change the world by making a new genre of music
I am a lot more ambitious
I can now fully understand how multiple topics in one subject can relate and/or be in another subject which
helped me to understand the different subjects in this case I&S and Music from different perspectives. It
helped me see the topics in deeper depth that we learnt. Before this IDU I did not think I could corporate two
different subjects and combine my knowledge of two different subjects to relate to real life. I feel like I can
now analyse the lyrics in music and relate that to how people suffered or how the felt when they were writing
their song and what rights did they have that were being violated if they were.

The blues originated from slaves who drove the worst lives, working from farms and field who had most of
their rights taken away from them. They worked very hard and were very ill-treated and had no rights such as
the right to no torture, they were tortured very much for the simplest of things or the right to expression, they
werent allowed to speak or communicate to other slaves and then slaves started making songs to
communicate to other slaves. In their songs, they sang about their emotions, feelings, dreams, and other
topics. Thereon the blues were created.

Appendix

Verse 1:

I had a dream not to be whipped or beat,

I had a dream no to be whipped or beat,

Ohhh wealthy man I will never get my dreams complete.

Verse 2:

Im trapped in the land of fear with no escape

Im trapped in the land of fear with no escape

Ohh Rich Man You live in a big house but for you im a nasty mouse.

Verse 3:

I dont know where mah life will end

I dont know where mah life will end

Maybe, ohh baby, I dont want to live this life no more

We made our song from the perspective of a person who is enslaved and being tortured.
In the song I made with my group we focused on the right to no torture. We first focused on using verbs and
adjectives that are related or affect the people/slaves who were affected by torture.

We used adjectives such as whipped, beat and escape. We used words that corporate the slaves for example we
used fear. We used adjectives at how the people saw the slave for example nasty mouse.

In verse one we speak about how I (slaves) have a dream not to be whipped or beaten, it means that they want to
live a normal life without punishment and equal to others and then a plea at the end of verse one asking/telling
wealthy man (most likely the field/farm owners) that our dreams will never be complete.

Verse 2 is a more metaphorical verse compared to verse 1. In verse 2, I (the save) speak about how we are
trapped in a land of fear with no escape, meaning that we cannot leave this slavery and we are scared because
for anything we do wrong we get punished and how it is very scary to be in slavery. At the end of verse 2 I
compare how the rich and wealthy men live in big houses but us slaves are just nasty mice, meaning that the
slaves are just another irritating problem that they have to deal with.

In Verse 3 we talk about how slaves live in constant fear not knowing if they will not wake up one day or if one
day they are in the wrong place and the wrong time or they something wrong and they just die. At the end of the
verse we talk about how maybe I ( slaves) dont want to live the life of a slave anymore and have suicidal
thoughts because they think death is better than their life which really shows you how it felt to be a slave.

Slavery is really, really bad and should be abolished.

Cites listed:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/stop-torture/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/05/amnesty-international-global-crisis-torture-exposed-new-
worldwide-campaign/

https://worldwithouttorture.org/2012/10/11/ten-facts-to-know-about-torture/

https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/features/9176

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/a-brief-history-of-the-blues-by-ed-kopp.php

http://www.shmoop.com/blues-history/race.html