An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…and vibrant. How have you managed to do this? A: To get the young people involved I decided to go to schools and teach music. I compose new material with my students and come up with something they like. I watch how they dance and whether they feel the rhythms and I try to teach them what I’m doing, but I also adapt to how they feel the music. I let them take the music where they want to take it as long as it is rooted in our traditions. I just wa…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…followed by ‘Seeds and Land’, an education song in English telling people to value and work the land, using it to solve their poverty. https://youtu.be/jvL-_gQ8BHA The fourth song was Yesu Alisema, essentially, ‘Jesus said’, which is another gospel song. https://youtu.be/h3PLpGb59A0 Their final song was Uganda, Land of Freedom, which was the song that saved the village multiple times. https://youtu.be/VRBYf6d8dp4 We loved the song so much we had…
How music archives can help communities News
…d in 1987 and the Wachsmann recordings have inspired a new generation to revive some of the instrumental and stylistic traditions of old. The Klaus Wachsmann collection is being repatriated to Uganda at the Makerere University in Kampala. The curator of the music archive is Dr. Sylvia Antonia Nannyonga-Tamusuza who we will be meeting while we are in Uganda next week. Click here to link to the Klaus Wachsmann Music Archive. References Ethnomusico…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ever yet seen them bought. Then there are the brick makers. Brick making involves at least three major steps. There’s the formation of the brick, typically done near the road, mixing clay and slapping big blobs into molds. Then there is the drying, where oodles of bricks are laid out along the road. And then there’s the firing, where brick are stacked up to about fifeteen feet and then ‘sealed’ into a clay oven that is constructed around them and…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…anner! Thank you ATTA – we will keep you posted on our travels in East Africa with news, photos and wonderful music! Victoria…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…bling we managed to invite our second group of the day, Cieng Dwong, to travel to us from their village Alebtong. All well and good, but our poor travelers didn’t arrive with us until about 1900, by which time it was pretty dark – okay, very dark. The good news is we have good lighting equipment. The bad news, good lights attract bugs. These are Nile bugs, mind you, so in addition to the millions of little moths you’d expect, we had bat size critt…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…ng start to the day. Today it was all about music of the Alur tribe. We drove from Pakwach across the Albert Nile Bridge into the Nebbi district to the village of Widyanga. The Music Alur Kingdom Troupe We set up amongst the ‘five layered’ thatched roof huts, settled down around the cows, goats and a really music loving chicken and recorded one single band, The Alur Kingdom Troupe, with every instrument imaginable: The Flute (yep, a flute) The Nda…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…r liaison contact with the Batwa communities while we were in Kisoro. Dear Victoria, The Batwa of Kisoro as a result of your visit felt an international belonging and recognition. Through the generation of money by the Abubilla Music team to the Batwa who performed their cultural dance, the Batwa managed to acquire things like goats, clothes, seeds, utensils, beddings and tarpaulins/tents to cover their leaking houses. Eating good food among Batwa…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…ld Kony territory, this song is pretty important. https://youtu.be/_u4-hVbcVV0 In the same vein, their second song was Lweny Dong Pee, a message to the government to bring back the children of conflict, many of whom remain displaced or imprisoned. https://youtu.be/eH1v-kwvvaQ Their third song was Songa Mbele, a song about ‘moving forward’ symbolized by all the performers swaying their heads back and forth. https://youtu.be/_ViFUMIwN4k?list=PL6jxUA…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…ote taking and logging is incredibly important as one recording trip can involved eight or more groups over a four-day period. Once we have finished recording the first group we assess whether we want to record any ‘Magic Moments’. These are where we film and record a musician performing solo on his or her instrument and are notable by the interesting nature of the instrument or the virtuosity of the performance. We then move to our second ‘set’ o…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…) 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 Evelyn Ojok and was formed in 1981, disbanded for the war and reformed in 1999. The leader summons the band to practice by playing drum…
UOBDU report on Singing Wells visit to the Batwa, Kisoro Uganda News
…who performed for the Singing Wells project. The good news is that being involved in the project seems to have given the groups a new and added pride for their music and has inspired them to practice their dances so that they can confidently perform to more audiences. It is also clear that the financial contribution made to UOBDU by the Abubilla Music Foundation has gone a long way to improve the quality of life for the Batwa in a variety of ways….
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…d a lot of time getting mobile phone cards!) and headed out on a 360 km drive to the town of Gulu in Northern Uganda. Within minutes we were deeply immersed in the ‘classic’ East African road scene: big tall white bags of coal, with grass helmets, bricks in various stages of manufacturer (either drying or firing), pyramids of potatoes, tomatoes on patches of blankets under trees, tiny goats tethered near the road side to pick at a fresh patch of g…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…o rediscover their cultural glory. Now 90% of the Acholi tribe have been moved to displacement camps. Their cultural heritage has become even more important now as their homeland has been taken away. This is particularly prevalent in the documentary ‘War Dance’, which I recommend to any interested. WorldMap has benefitted Singing Wells greatly even leading us to create our own Music Map which archives our own raw data from our field trips. You c…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ly from the Nile River Valley and migrated down the River Nile to the Lake Victoria region after the Nubian peoples. In Egypt (particularly around the valley) you can find many instruments that date back over 5000 years, many, like the nyatiti, are also found in Egyptian hieroglyphs (right). The Luo people are related to the Acholi people of Uganda, a tribe we will come across in our next field visit. They play a similar instrument called the Adun…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…r locust attack). They ran a lovely hotel and greeted us warmly with Nile Specials! We handed off a pile of Batwa DVD’s for them to take back to the Traveller’s Rest and hit the sack. Jimmy (Entebbe)…