Abstract:
This article introduces the Music Therapy Community Clinic’s (MTCC) Music for
Health Project based in a tuberculosis (TB) hospital in South Africa. The value of this
community music therapy project is explored from various narrative frameworks
pertaining to health and the TB disease. Initially viewed from a reductionist medical
narrative with a primary focus on treatment of physical symptoms, music therapy offers
patients a diversion from their illness, but is perhaps a luxury rather than an essential
form of therapy. The project is then considered from a narrative framework of
empowerment, placing TB as a disease that predominantly affects those who are
disempowered through poverty, stigmatization and isolation. Three case studies explore
how community music therapy serves to empower patients on individual and collective
levels, and consider possibilities this may hold for influencing the health behaviour of
patients. As TB is becoming a pertinent issue worldwide, the article may offer
possibilities for the role of creative approaches in the care of TB patients.
