G'day Greg, Malcolm, Azizi et al,

All this happened a long way from here ... but, I heard a story that bears, tangentially on the 'suppression', if not banning, of "thumb pianos".

Back in the early 1980s, Ewan McColl & Peggy Seeger were visiting Sydney. At a Master Class, which I attended, Ewan mentioned that he had attended some anthropological conferences. At one (many years before) he was intrigued see a great number of American officials - particularly of military persuasion. Amongst a group of US (Navy ... ?) delegates he was surpised to see Margaret Mead - complete with US (Navy?) ID tags.

In discussion, Margaret Mead explained she was employed to promote American culture in "third world" countries ... and cited, as evidence of her success, that - over the time she was working on this - the playing of "thumb pianos" had dropped by a considerable degree ... and the playing of juke boxes had increased by a similar amount.

I only have this "third-hand" ... but I believe such matters may have been covered in the 1971 A Rap on Race with James Baldwin. I only raise them to indicate that Ian Smith was not the only one who thought that suppressing native / national instruments and music might further their own interests.

Regards,

Bob