Jason in Ghana Because of Freedom Song

Just a little bit of FYI news for my Mraz Women.

Jason Mraz recently visited Ghana on a humanitarian mission with the nonprofit organization, Free the Slaves, whose mission is to end slavery worldwide. Today, Mraz wrote about his five-day trip on his blog and explained how he linked up with the Free the Slaves organization.

Last year, Jason Mraz discovered the “The Freedom Song” written by Luc Reynaud on a CD distributed by Harmonic Humanity, an organization that helps the homeless. He learned that the song was composed by Reynaud with a group of Louisiana children when the songwriter visited the area after Hurricane Katrina. The original recording of the song features Reynaud singing with children from a shelter in Baton Rouge.

Inspired by the song's optimistic message of how music can uplift the human spirit, Jason Mraz started performing the song in public. Reynaud encourages the song to be shared around the world and Mraz always explains the origin of the song, which could definitely be mistaken as something Jason might have written.

Jason also sent a copy of the song to the Free the Slaves organization, after having attended the 2009 Freedom Awards event in Los Angeles. As a result, Jason received a response from the organization asking him to come to Ghana:

"They were spreading the song as Luc had requested and children around the world were singing along – children who were just being introduced to real freedom for the first time in their lives," Mraz explained.

The journey of the song came full circle as Mraz sent a text to Reynaud during his trip to Ghana:

"I sent Luc a text telling him I had just heard 20 former slaves sing his song note for note. He wrote back. 'Of course. It’s their song. I wrote it for them.'" [*]