Subaltern prayer and music function as rebellion against the European frame of history

Evidence

This is exactly how the music called jazz began,” wrote James Baldwin, “and out of the same necessity: not only to redeem a history unwritten and despised, but to checkmate the European [and American] notion of the world. For until this hour, when we speak of history, we are speaking only of how Europe [and America] saw—and sees—the world.” But there is a very great deal in the world which Europe does not, or cannot, see. When Kalsoum finally spoke, and sang Allah’s name, I knew that she could see. — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 112

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to James Baldwin’s argument about jazz and African American cultural resistance to white historiography.
• SEED: Could stand as an essay epigraph or framing device about colonized sound/spiritual expression as epistemic resistance.