Imba Means Sing

Music For Life and the African Children’s Choir are Christian organizations and there is quite a bit of screen time in this film given to the children praying to Jesus and talking about performing for God. If you’re Christian you may welcome this as supportive of your child’s enrichment. For everyone else, just thought you’d like to know. Also, the film is a little bit boring, and there is not any time spent sharing the actual outcomes of these choir tours. Where does the money go? How did these children ultimately benefit? The movie just ends when they go back to Uganda and I found that unsettling. It left me with a lot of questions.

I watched Imba Means Sing with my kids expecting them to come to some understanding of what it means to be a child in Uganda. I hoped there would be a story or plot to keep my kids interested. Something about kids overcoming diversity through a love of music perhaps? But that isn't what this movie is about. Here were some of the questions my family had while we watched. . . About 10 minutes in my 9 year-old asked: Why is it called the African Children's Choir? This is an all Ugandan children's choir and yet they are billed and tour as the "African" children's choir? Good point kid! Africa is a continent with 54 countries of which Uganda is only one. For some reason in the US we often refer to people as African instead of their actual nationality. Why is that? Why does this movie about Ugandan children reinforce that idea? . . Then both my kids wanted to know why Ugandan children had to pay to go to school, why wasn't school free in Uganda? That's an excellent question... but the movie never even bothered to answer it! It just made it seem like it was normal for children in Uganda to not be able to afford school. So our family resorted to Google to learn the answer. It turns out that contrary to what this documentary would have you believe, school in Uganda IS FREE!!!?? What is not free is the supplies and books and that is why kids drop out. So just like here in the US, education is considered a right. And there are kids in Uganda who can not only afford to go to school, they go to fancy private schools, just like here in the US. . . Watching this movie, my kids started to feel like everything in Uganda was poverty and sadness. I wondered if that was true, so we resorted to Google yet again and found out that Uganda is a country with amazing waterfalls, stunning mountains and deep cultural traditions. And that there are in fact wealthy Ugandans who send their kids to private schools just like here in the United States. What does the movie have to gain by selling the idea that all children in Uganda are poor and unhappy? That everything in the United States is better? . . And then we just got bored. There was no story here. Just the same things over and over. Ultimately we turned it off and watched Mad Hot Ballroom instead, which managed to keep my 9 and 5 year-old riveted. As far as we are concerned this movie makes some very uncomfortable assumptions about how American citizens should view people from Uganda and Africa in general that provoked some good questions but failed to answer them. And then it just was a poorly constructed story that failed to engage our interest.

My kids are 8,8,6 and 4. The 8 and 6 year olds really liked it. The 4 year old wandered off about halfway through. This is a great movie to get your kids out of the bubble of cartoons and expose them to what life is like in other cultures. Go watch it!

My family and I started watching this movie based on the glowing Common Sense Media review. We got 20 minutes in before we stopped and talked about the disturbing layers of the choir. The kids, from impoverished cities in Africa, are selected to perform (the process was unclear), and then taught stereotypical African dances and songs. They were paid for performing on tour around the US, and gained access to education as well. Clearly, having access to money and education is better than remaining stuck in a situation without both. However, I am deeply worried about the larger issue of the choir perpetuating and encouraging stereotypes of African children (the film mentions Uganda, but other than that, the children are referred to only as African - a stereotype that all kids from an entire continent share a culture), and then encouraging a self-congratulatory paternalism for members of the choir's audience. The children are also taught to pray, and taught the tenets of Christianity, which seems to be a requirement for being in the choir. Our family had plenty to talk about afterwards, but we did not talk about this movie as a heartwarming tale.

Excellent multifaceted film! Beautiful cinematography. A charming window into the lives of this traveling choir. Your family will be richly rewarded by the priceless live footage from both Africa & on tour.