Throughout the history of struggle, song has been what generations of indentured and persecuted peoples have turned to as a salve that soothes a weary spirit, coaxing it to fight another day.

Scrolling through social media a few weeks ago, I came across a video that posed an arresting question: "What do liberation-minded people need in times of injustice and tragedy?"

At first blush, a simple question, but one that has been playing in my head as I seek to answer it. My immediate instinct was to turn to history and my reference point of living through the tail-end of South Africa's liberation era and what the cohort of liberation fighters I knew turned to.

But it was only as I started writing this column that the answer crystallised - song.

Throughout the history of struggle, song has been what generations of indentured and persecuted peoples have turned to as a salve that soothes a weary spirit, coaxing it to fight another day.

Research from Gettysburg College that contrasts South Africa's liberation struggle and the US civil rights struggle suggests: "As an elemental form of creative expression, music enables many of the vital tools needed to overcome hatred and violence. Jazz and freedom songs were two of the most influential genres, and each was integral especially to building solidarity, expressing struggles, and protesting against injustice."

When words fail, other forms of expression...