Unyago Group
…e style. This style is all about ‘Rebels’ and things that women talk about to themselves – very suggestive songs but using innuendo, so all deniable if called out. Traditionally, these were all songs that were part of wedding rituals and used to prepare the bride. Songs about girls becoming women. The singers come from the Wagindo people, who came from Malawi to Zanzibar, probably through the slave trade. When the British stopped the slave trade t…
Stories Page
…ing these traditions alive. Picture We manage to take some beautiful photos on our trip. Find out the stories behind some of our favourite pictures we have taken on the field. Community Get to know some of the inspiring communities we have met on our trips, as well as some of the Singing Wells community working behind the scenes….
Bigwala Cultural Group Group
…is Nabirye Irene. The group are from the village of Bukoona and travelled to the Gately on the Nile Hotel in Jinja for the recording session. The Bigwala is the name of the trumpets they play. Song Meanings “Muwe Bwobona Asaba”: When someone asks you kindly assist them. “Mperekera Omwana Womurembe”: When you are walking with someone by your side they are the special one and you don’t look at anyone else. “Mwene Wamwenda”: When you love someone ev…
2. Naizungwe Drums – progress report 1 Story
…wever, the basic number includes: 1 large Uganda drum (played with short heavy beaters) 3 smaller drums (played with long curved sticks) 1 medium drum (played with sticks) 1 long drum (ngalabi – hand-beaten) All together, 6 drums. Therefore, we are making four sets of naizungwe drums mainly to facilitate learning.” Below is a video documenting the progress of the drums thus far. https://youtu.be/66qF_RYumJM…
1. Introducing the Naizungwe drums Story
…portunities for our people to believe in themselves and their values. Our history has weakened our minds and what is left is for man to eat man. No values! No identity! No humans! Just creatures moving the path of God’s gift called life and breathing the air meant for humans.” Below are excepts from Peter Cooke’s recordings of the drums that James talks about: http://www.singingwells.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Peter-Cooke-naizungwe-recording-1…
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 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
…orris and see our first Snake Dance Okay, let’s first cover some basics: This is a field report. We write these on a daily basis as we travel in the field, 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 wil…
A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…ng the Royal Entenga Drummers, and is currently working on a project to restore the lost lyre, the Entongooli. You can read more about this project on our website here. We are very grateful to be partnered with such a visionary for the future, and protector of traditional East african music and instruments. We know that generations to come will be grateful for the work he has put in to continue these traditions. He has also written a report analys…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
…n is currently in a critical condition in hospital. We are urgently trying to raise funds to support him and his family in this difficult time, and we hope that some of our followers may be able to help us. If you are based in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). If you are based elsewhere in the world, we have created a GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundm…
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…
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…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…lion total views across our videos. When we started Singing Wells almost ten years ago, we set an aim to bring the traditional 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
December 3rd: reflections at the Kampala museum This is our final day in the field in Uganda. Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi to record in the Ketebul Studios: we identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the kingdoms of Ug…
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
…ormation of the kingdom we played a couple of times but we have not played together since the sixties and no one listens to the music and the king never asks for musicians.“ Of course, each of these discussions is disturbing, but we share them to give you a sense of the desperate situation with this music. We have told you of the royal drums and our efforts to revive them. And of a younger, incredibly passionate drummer, Shaban, who is now extreme…