The various agencies operating in Kabul need to be made more aware of the special vulnerability of musicians, who, often non-literate and from poorer sections of society, are easy targets. This is where organisations like Freemuse and Human Rights Watch have a special role in drawing the attention of the world press and policy makers to continuing music censorship in Afghanistan.

The Kharabat, home of Afghanistan's master musicians, has acquired a new symbolic significance as the centre of musical excellence in Afghanistan. There is a need for an oral history project in which as many people as possible recount their memories of the Kharabat. The project would include recording music specifically connected with the Kharabat, such as compositions of known individuals and songs that encapsulate the spirit of the Kharabat.

As part of the revival of Kharabat culture I am collaborating with the Aga Khan Foundation to develop a master-student training scheme which has been successfully pioneered in other parts of Central Asia. A small number of master musicians are paid to give music lessons to a group of pupils, who are also paid for their efforts. It is envisaged that four ustaads would be employed to teach vocal (specifically, the art of Afghan ghazal singing), harmonium, rebab and tabla. These can be identified as the four key skills of Kabuli art music. The scheme would be set up for one year in the first instance. This would go some way towards re-establishing the high levels of performance from the past. At least one Kharabat musician has already set up his own private ‘school’ for teaching rebab, so it is a matter of building on already established practices.

Many of Afghanistan's outstanding musicians are living in the west. One could mention Ustaad Asif in London and Ustaad Khyal in New York. Ways must be found to involve them in the process of re-establishing music in Kabul, perhaps through short-term teaching programmes.

Despite government attempts to support musicians financially, morale amongst their employees is low. Some specific projects need to be formulated which will lead to them doing some creative work. One possibility would be a recording project to produce one or more CDs or videos for the world music market in the west. It would also seem desirable for musicians to acquire their own musical instruments, for regular daily practice is necessary to maintain the highest standards of performance.

The singing of women and playing of the daireh (frame drum) was not totally proscribed by the Taliban. Research is already in progress as part of an AÏNA project which is training Afghan women in the use of mini DV camcorders and in making documentary films, to investigate what kind of singing and drumming was possible for women in Kabul in Taliban times, and whether such practices are becoming more common today, even though women are not permitted to sing on radio, television, or on stage.

The Archives of Radio Afghanistan are in urgent need of digitisation. The quarter inch tapes go back 35 years, a long time for such materials to survive, especially when there is no way of controlling temperature or humidity in the archive. The tapes are otherwise well looked after, and are regularly rewound (on tape recorders whose heads were long ago cannibalised as spares for other machines). This is a very specific project that should be in the care of an organisation like AKMICA or UNESCO. The National Sound Archive, part of the British Library in central London, has precisely the expertise appropriate for helping. It is proposed that Will Prentice from the NSA should visit Kabul for 1-2 weeks to assess the needs of the Radio Afghanistan sound archive and how it should best be digitised. It is anticipated that the radio station will need two (perhaps three) set-ups for copying from quarter-inch tape to CD-R. Two (or three) salaries will be required for this work.

Abdul Wahab Madadi is the most significant Afghan intellectual with an interest in music. He comes from Herat, is a radio journalist with three years training in Germany, writer of many magazine articles about music in Afghanistan, singer of many Herati songs on the radio, music programme producer, and holder of various administrative positions at Radio Afghanistan. He is the author of The Story of Contemporary Music in Afghanistan, published in Persian by IPO in Tehran. It is now out of print. A reprint of 2,000 copies should be made by IPO for sale in Afghanistan.

There are also many articles written by western ethnomusicologists about Afghan music which should be translated and published in Dari. These would form important resources for Afghan musicians, music educators and students of music. Translation and publication can easily be done by the Publications Department of the Afghan NGO Co-ordination of Humanitarian Assistance (CHA).

In view of what has been learned from this visit to Kabul it is clear that the proposal for Goldsmiths College Afghanistan Music Unit (AMU) to publish a series of 30 CDs from the 350 hours of music in the Baily-Doubleday Archive will form an important resource for the future.

The Kabul University is in dire need of the support that links with other universities can provide. It is obvious that Goldsmiths College, with its large Music Department and Afghanistan Music Unit, has expertise appropriate for this, to promote both the performance of traditional Afghan music and western music. At the moment expertise is required in terms of instrumental teaching for the many western instruments which have been donated to the Music Department. New instruments are required for the teaching of traditional Afghan music. In due course it is hoped that one or more suitably qualified Afghan students may be able to study at Goldsmiths for the MMus in Ethnomusicology, which will provide appropriate skills for future research on oral traditions of music in Afghanistan.