Kaniini Kaseo Group
…g to a political leader in the area. The song praises the politician and asks the people to vote for him – he’s Kyonekana na nengwe. His name means, “if seen give it to him”. Kolleji or College: This is sung in the Itheke genre. The song praises a local politician (Major Mutina Muluvi) who takes graduate students to work at Equity Bank and high school leavers to college if their parents can’t afford it….
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…ungwe drums have been well underway. (If you haven’t read our introduction to the project, do so here). A drum maker has been contacted, the correct trees have been sourced and cut down, the logs have been hollowed out and the skins have been formed. One of the early milestones was finding a tree out of which to craft the largest of the drums, no trivial task given the size and type of tree required. Here is our first video, James Isabirye talking…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…d never seen these drums, the recording spoke to me profoundly. I listened to the recording very many times and every time I listened it sounded ‘sweeter’ and attractive. I kept on asking myself what would happen if there is a function in Busoga and these drums emerge. I have seen how people are excited about Bigwala. We need to create opportunities for our people to believe in themselves and their values. Our history has weakened our minds and wh…
Day 4: Tuesday, February 21st, 2017 Story
Recording at the Bagamoyo Country Club Early in the morning we return to the village Boma to collect musicians from the group Chibite, who we had recorded the day before. We love their energy and musicianship and wanted to record a fuller album. Three members were the same as yesterday: the brother/sister combo of Ndekwa and Ndahani and Ndahani’s daughter Grace. We then added Tabu and Estelle, two other sisters of Ndahani and Ndekwa. This was an…
Day 3: Monday, 2017 February 20th Story
…village. In the dance, the ‘hidden girl’ is hidden under the blanket next to the woman. She is kept in the dark in a village hut from 6 months to 3-4 years depending on marriage prospects and her family’s ability to raise funds for the ‘coming out’ celebration. To symbolize her ‘emergence’, in the dance, the bundle is lifted onto a dancer’s back and carried into one of the huts in the village. At one point in the dance, she emerges from the hut w…
Day 2: Sunday, 2017 February 19th Story
…zens of children and the Bigilia From our hotel, we drove a short distance to the village of Nia Njema, where we stayed all day recording Bigilia. They were cooking fish under the main tree and the women were sitting on the Mbuzi, which is used to cut the coconut for Wali (Coconut Rice). The dancers all had lovely necklaces (Usalu), hats (Kigarama) shakers (Mbugu), whistles (Firimbi), and ‘brooms’ (Usinga). The group leader was Asha Saidi Kazidi….
Day 1: Saturday, 2017 February 18th Story
…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 that we’ve been working for seven years now in Kenya and Uganda. We thought we would have covered more countries by now, but we have been blown away by the…
A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…ethods used with the young people involved in the project, what this meant for the sustainability for the instruments future, and how this impacted the young people’s identity and associations with the Bigwala-playing community. You can find the full report on the Sage website here: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/EBNMQEBVD9ECYMFJF8EP/full Professor Isabirye’s extensive work in reviving lost instruments so that they will be passed through futu…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…Wells project, will match these contributions up to £1000 so we greatly appreciate your support at this time. We are sending our prayers to Matthew and his family in this difficult time….
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…site here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and how they helped mould new music styles across Africa. Rumba was brought to Eastern Africa via the itinerant Congolese musicians Edouard Masengo and Jean Bosco Mwenda who’s intricate guitar-picking styles largely shaped the present Kenyan sound, with the Be…
Our journey to the Royal Drums: in the words of James Isabirye Story
…a chance to interview James Isabirye about how and why we found ourselves together. This is a summary of that conversation, roughly in James’ own words. I use the term roughly for two reasons: 1) These are African roads and James was highly distracted by his own driving during our interview, dodging vans, cows and potholes. 2) I was trying to take notes in a car that seemed to be driving as fast and far left to right on the road as forward. Betwe…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube channel for the footage and recordings from our field trip to Zanzibar and Pemba….
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
…ibrant musical heritage. They not only supported the musicians who made it to the palaces, but also a vast ecosystem of villages that focused on instrument making or villages that focused on training potential musicians for the palaces. This patronage was not free, however, and the resources to fund the palaces and their music ultimately came from the same villages, through taxation and food contributions. Moreover, these musicians were not empowe…
Recce to Tanzania for our 2020 Field Visit News
…artists when we visit again with the full team in a few weeks time. Thanks to the good people at Dhow Countries Music Academy for helping us with the information and contacts from their database. Getting a private crash course on the ganun from ganun virtuoso and teacher Rajab. In a few previous instances, the importance of Singing Wells is emphasised when someone we record passes on some time after we record them. We were reminded even more of th…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 2 – Interviews with Musicians of Uganda’s Royal Palaces Story
…e proven wrong. Musisi is looking for more drummers and the ones we talked to today are desperate to find others that played with them. Richard Ssewannyana We first travelled about an hour from Mukono to the village of Bamusuta B Kizimula to meet with Richard Ssewannyana. As we believe Musisi is the ‘last surviving’ royal drummer, we believe Richard is the last surviving royal flutist. Please, let’s be wrong here. We first interviewed Richard: “I…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 3, Part 1- Drum Making and Palace Players Story
…ces – long for long drums, short for short drums. Then you bore the hold into the log,” (the tool used is Ekifumu) “you then let the wood dry in the sun.” Here Abass showed us a wooden ‘pail’ that had the rough outline of a small drum, but needed to be hollowed out. He did this by carving deeply into the wood with a large scraping tool that he used to carve wood from the centre. 2. Cutting the wood to size “You then cut the wood to size” (the saw…