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…preservation of Ugandan cultural heritage through dance. The group is made up of up to 50 members, the youngest members being only seven years old. Matthew lived in Awedi until 1991, when he moved to Kampala, due to the rebel fighting. He started a small group of dancers, performing Acholi traditional dance which he had learnt when he was young, both from grandfather in his village and from watching dancers at village events. He went around his di…
Day Six: January 24, 2019 From Mwanza to Dodomo to Nzali to Nairobi Story
…n trough) Group 2: Nyati Muchoya (also spelt Mchoya): From Nzali, the group is from the Wagogo Tupu community and was formed in 1966 by the grandfathers of the current performers. Their instruments include: Nindo (jingles), Njuga (Shakers), Mbega (animal Skins), Muheme (drums), Kabati (kayamba-shakers), Manyanga ( Maracas), Madodolo (cow bell), and Pangwa/Kipangwa (a double headed lyre). We recorded four performances, where each of the songs i…
Our Sponsors Page
…undcloud for their continued support in the Singing Wells project. You can sign up for a free Soundcloud account which will give you the ability to comment on our recordings. To find out more about Soundcloud, go to: http://www.soundcloud.com Nebulo Strata Type of sponsorship: discounted services Nebulo Strata have been on board from the start of The Singing Wells project, helping to design and put into practice our ideas for our website. Our we…
Ndagwa Msanga Group
…re a group of young girls are from Msanga and the Wagogo community. The group was formed in 1994 to encourage the young of the Wagogo tribe to embrace and appreciate their culture. Their style of music makes up all the musical styles of the Wagogo community. Their instruments are all about percussion: Ngoma (Drums) and Kayamba (Shakers). These young performers are amazing and if they are a sign, then the future of Tanzanian music is alive and well…
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…d, doing our best to record traditional groups, songs, and stories. All groups and songs mentioned here will eventually turn up on YouTube (see our current video collection here), as we prepare each of the videos. We will go back to these reports and provide hot links to all of these, but that will take a couple months or so, so please be patient. This is our first trip to Tanzania. For those of you that have followed Singing Wells, you will know…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 2 – Muranga to Kangema to Nkubu Story
…away. We recorded four groups. The Music Groups Gacharaigu Gitiro Women Group The group is led by Fidelia Nyambura Mwangi. They are from Munuga Village, Munuga sub location, Muguru Ward, Muguru Division, Kamgema District and was formed in 2006 and dedicated to self-help. Their style is Ndumo, an old women’s dance purely for entertainment and preservation of culture. For all their songs, the ladies used the Kigamba (leg shakers). The group played 6…
Before They Pass Away News
…only do we want to sustain the musical heritage of East Africa, we want to promote it in today’s world. With this in mind, we’ve been following the work of British photographer Jimmy Nelson with interest, who spent four years travelling to meet and photograph some of the world’s last surviving tribes. His book, Before They Pass Away, is a fascinating insight into these communities’ ways of life. Nelson’s breathtaking photographs capture how these…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…e of South Africa but, when Tracey died in 1977, private funding had dried up. His son, Andrew Tracey, took over as Director and Rhodes University, in the East Cape province of South Africa, agreed to host the ILAM. Its aims are ‘to discover, record, analyze, and archive the music of sub-Saharan Africa, with the object of establishing a theory of music making in Africa and assessing the social, cultural, and artistic values of African music’ and,…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…sic networking session which became the launch for a new initiative by the Cape Verde government. It has been calculated that music is their biggest export and so has set up the African Music Forum to make it easier for musicians to make a living – from visas and flights to financial support. It is an exciting time, and seems to chime in with what Eddie Hatitye announced for Music in Africa. Members of the Music Producers Guild led a discussion on…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…embe with Macadonia and Rubanga Kingom. We also recorded a great adungu group (Adungu Cultural Troupe). And we really captured wonderful, traditional vocal harmonies with Anyim Lac, the beautiful old ladies who sang so softly. And there were some real positive surprises. We were very lucky to record the Nanga with the Watmon Cultural Troupe and we had two great examples of the Ndara. But we were also able to recording amazing dancing… this is by f…
Hannah interviews Evelyn Ojok – Acet, Northern Uganda News
…ur different parishes, this gives me strength and hope. Working in this group has influenced women, they now have guidance and work to earn money for themselves. It is not only a musical group but a community for women to grow. The reason we love it is because the music helps us heal and forget about the pain we experienced during the war. Many of us are widows or have had children taken into the bush. My husband died in the war 15 years ago and s…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…earch. We’re really good now at doing interviews on songs, villages and groups and supporting that with research. This all sounds like pretty basic things and we agree. But imagine arriving at a village that has 6 groups, no clear leaders, no common language, and no particular interest in telling their story unless asked. You’ve got to sort this out pretty quick and get the right person talking about the right issues. But we’re doing well now. The…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ugh them. Our Ketebul team will explain that the worse the road, the less support the locals have given to the party in power. A lot of people don’t support the party in power it seems – at least by our road test. During the day, trucks are trucks. They lead a lot, overburdened with their cargo and the dozen or so folks hitching a ride to supplement the drivers income. Then there are the ‘taxi’s’ – in Uganda, these are the white vans with English…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…t the head, hips and feet. The second theme was percussion. Most of the groups were supported by: Bul (drums), Gara (ankle shakers) and the Gwara (calabash or tambourin with Samba drumming, in this case a tortoise sized shell that they hit with a brush of wire). In addition, one of the groups featured the Uvure, a wonderful horn. The Uvure in action… Omee Odokomit Our first group was Omee Odokomit, who played Apiri style. The group is led by Evely…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…r she had created. Once we had a map that only represented these tribal groups we then attached further information on each tribe to this layer so there would be extra information about each group, anyone can access this by clicking on any area (each tribe is separated by colour – this is shown in the image of the map above). We then used this tribe distribution map as the basis for all other layers, for example, using data we had collected about…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…urchison Lodge in Pakwach and meet up with ‘The Aynu Traditional Music’ group, (a Lugbara group) ‘Wenipac and ‘Ndara Troupe‘ who will spend a day with us at the Lodge. These groups represent all of the Alur, Lugbara, Acholi, Kakwa, Madi and Kebu tribes! This seems to demonstrate how traditional music has created a sense of unity between many different tribes in one area. These tribes are grouped tightly together in the North, as shown on the map b…