Chapter 36: Harmony Needs Every Key

The Words: J. E. K. Aggrey, 1920s

James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey was a teacher who loved to explain big ideas with simple pictures. One of his favourite pictures came from the piano. In my own words, he said: you can play a tune of sorts on the white keys alone, and you can play a tune of sorts on the black keys alone, but for real harmony you need both the black and the white. He meant that people of every colour are made to work together, and that each needs the others to make full music. His saying was recorded by Edwin W. Smith in a biography called Aggrey of Africa, published in 1929, two years after Aggrey's death.

The picture is gentle and clear. A piano with only one kind of key would still make sounds, but something would always be missing. Aggrey did not ask the keys to become alike. The white keys stay white and the black keys stay black. Harmony comes from their difference, played together.

The Life Behind the Words

J. E. K. Aggrey was born in 1875 in West Africa. He went to a mission school, where he proved to be a gifted student, and while still young he began to teach others. As a young man, he crossed the ocean to the Americas to study at a college. He stayed for more than twenty years, studying, teaching and speaking to many audiences. He became known as a warm and humorous speaker, who could make people laugh and think at the same time.

In the 1920s, he travelled across Africa as a member of a group that studied schools and education, and he spoke wherever he went about learning and about people working together. Later he returned home and became one of the leaders of a new college, where he hoped young people would receive an excellent education. He died suddenly in 1927, while his work was still growing. His saying about the piano keys came from a life spent between different peoples, always trying to help them understand one another.

What the Words Ask of Us

The words ask us to see difference as a source of richness, not of division. In any family, workplace, school or neighbourhood, people have different backgrounds, habits, ages and ways of thinking. It is easy to stay only with those who are like us. It may even feel more comfortable. But Aggrey's piano reminds us that the deepest music needs many kinds of notes. When we work together across our differences, we can make something that none of us could make alone.

Think of Paulo, who leads a small choir. Some of his singers have high, light voices, and others have deep, low ones. Some are teenagers, and some are in their eighties. At first the groups sing in separate corners, a little shy of one another. Paulo patiently brings them together. The first time they sing a song in full harmony, the room seems to fill with light. No single voice could have made that sound. It belonged to all of them together.

Similar Words From Around the World

In the Nguni languages of southern Africa, such as Zulu, there is a traditional saying that means, in my own words: a person is a person through other people. The idea is often called ubuntu. Aggrey's piano says that we make better music together. Ubuntu goes even further. It says that we become fully ourselves only through our ties with others. In this light, working together is not only useful. It is part of what it means to be human.

An old text in Sanskrit, the Maha Upanishad, belongs to the Upanishads, a group of ancient writings of South Asia about the deepest questions of life. One of its verses says, in my own words: to those with a generous heart, the whole world is one family. Aggrey spoke of black and white keys on one instrument. The Upanishad speaks of one family that holds every person on earth. Both ask us to widen the circle of those we feel close to, until no one is left outside.

Living It Today

These words can speak to anyone. A student may share a classroom with people from very different homes. A worker may join a team where everyone thinks in a different way. A retired person may find new neighbours moving in nearby. In each case, the same choice appears: to keep to our own keys, or to learn to play together. The second choice takes more patience, but it makes far richer music.

Here is something to try this week. Start a conversation with someone whose life is quite different from yours, perhaps a person of another age, background or way of thinking. Ask them about something they love or something they know well. Listen for what their note adds to your own. Every friendship of this kind is one more chord in the great music of the world, and that music is still being played today.

Chapter 37: Good Character Holds People Together

The Words: Ahmed Shawqi, 1920s

Ahmed Shawqi was one of the most loved poets ever to write in Arabic. Among his many lines, one is quoted again and again, in speeches, in schools and in conversation. In my own words, it says: peoples last as long as their good character lasts; if their good character goes, they go too. The Arabic word he uses for character, akhlaq, means more than good manners. It includes honesty, kindness, fairness and the way people treat one another every day.

At first the line may sound like a warning. But it can also be read in a hopeful way. It tells us what truly holds a people together. It is not wealth, size or power. It is the good character of ordinary people in their daily lives. That is something everyone can help to keep alive.

The Life Behind the Words

Ahmed Shawqi was born in 1868 in the Arabic-speaking world. As a young man, he studied law, and he later went to Europe to continue his studies and to learn about literature in other languages. He came home with new ideas, but he always remained deeply rooted in the great tradition of poetry in Arabic, which goes back many centuries. He wrote poems for public occasions, poems of praise and of sorrow, and poems about history, nature and faith.

In his later years, he also wrote plays in verse, and he is remembered as a pioneer of this kind of drama in Arabic. In 1927, at a gathering in his honour, poets from many parts of the Arabic-speaking world gave him the title the Prince of Poets. Many of his lines are still learned by heart, and some of his poems were set to music and sung. He died in 1932. His line about character comes from a poet who thought often about what helps a people stand firm through good times and hard times.

What the Words Ask of Us

The words ask us to take our own character seriously, because it matters to more people than ourselves. Every time a person tells the truth, keeps a promise, treats a stranger fairly or helps someone in need, they strengthen the ties that hold a community together. Every time someone lies, cheats or acts with cruelty, those ties grow a little weaker. None of us can hold a whole people together alone. But each of us is one of the threads.

Think of Esther, who teaches a class of ten-year-olds. She cannot change the whole world, but every morning she greets each child by name. When two children argue, she helps them listen to each other. When a child is new and shy, she finds someone to sit with them. Over the year, the class becomes a small community where people trust one another. Esther is not only teaching lessons. She is helping good character to grow, in the place where it always begins.

Similar Words From Around the World

Confucius was a teacher in East Asia about two thousand five hundred years ago, and his sayings were collected by his students in a book called the Analects. When a student asked him about goodness, he answered, in my own words: do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself. This simple rule is perhaps the firmest foundation of good character. It gives Ahmed Shawqi's line a clear, everyday shape. If each person followed it, the ties between people would stay strong.

Mencius, a later teacher in the same tradition, gave a famous example. In my own words: anyone who suddenly sees a small child about to fall into a well feels alarm and pity, without thinking about any reward. That feeling, Mencius said, is the beginning of goodness, and it is present in everyone. This echo adds a deep hope to the poet's line. Good character is not something rare that only a few people have. Its seeds are already in every heart, and they can be grown.

Living It Today

These words can help anyone who wonders what they can do for the people around them. A parent shapes character at home. A worker shows it in how they treat colleagues and customers. A young person shows it with friends, both in person and on a screen. An older person passes it on through example and stories. Good character is not a grand idea for speeches only. It lives in small daily choices, and it spreads from person to person.

Here is something to try this week. Choose one quality of good character that you value, such as honesty, patience or fairness. Each day, look for one moment when you can practise it, especially when it would be easier not to. At the end of the week, think about how those moments felt. A people stays strong because its members keep choosing what is good, and each of us can make that choice today.