Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…c and did a paper on drumming in Ghana. So Vicki switched seats with Jimmy and talked to Andrew about the Singing Wells project for an hour. We then all settled down to watch Ted before landing about 8 hours later in Entebbe. All bags were gratefully recovered and we took a taxi for an 8 minute journey to the Airport Guesthouse Entebbe, where we were greeted by our old friends, Jan Willem Van De Kamp (the owner of this hotel and the Travelers Rest…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…the Luo peoples, an ethnic group now situated in Western Kenya, Eastern Uganda and Northern Tanzania. They were originally 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 Ach…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…rs stayed the morning as well. We had a full crew to support Ben – Johnnie and Bishop on guitar, Nina and Winyo on vocals. Watch this space. We also continued our work to capture new artists for Missing – Global Remix, our 2012 fund raising song. We had Prasad Velankar, a wonderful Indian percussionist join us to put on new percussion. He plays the Tabla at the speed of light and transformed the song. He was so good, we decided to put together a m…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…d to bring them back to the Nairobi studio. That led to 10 Batwa musicians and 5 Batwa babies travelling from Kisoro to Kampala to Nairobi and recording some great songs over the course of four days. We now want to repeat this for every field visit and decided to invite the Otacho Young Stars, the great find of our field visit to record the Luo, and Ben Kisinja, the great Kalenjin musician we recorded earlier this week. Saturday was all about the…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…rying to attract. Like kids everywhere, they tend to reject their parents’ and grandparents’ music, hoping to discover new music they can uniquely own. If we spent too much of our time showing only the videos of the few groups we think can be fed into more mainstream music, we are abandoning our mission to record all the styles of East Africa, so others can rediscover them. This topic became a major topic of discussion over our remaining three day…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…ollection of women from little villages scattered around the Kabarnet area and they want to promote good values of culture and education. They were all dressed in brown, almost terracotta, outfits looking like the red clay we love so much. They make all their own costumes and sew on all their own beadwork. They wear a belt of 5 rows of cowry shells sewn on, symbolising peace. When a woman lays it down on the ground it means a ceasefire (see Kathy’…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…ravelled.’ We left Iten on a red, dirt road. The athletes ran on the sides and our car and jeep travelled in the middle. While the countryside was beautiful, the roads left a bit to be desired and we bumped and jostled for about 80 kms. The land is tilled now, waiting for a new planting season, so we are surrounded by red. The red roads, the red tilled soil on either side, the red dust filling our eyes and lungs as cars pass us. We have the opport…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…g her arms to the beat. Then she would begin to sing, and then she would stand and sway, and then she would begin to dance around and gradually would join the band. She simply couldn’t help herself. That is the power of music. We will try to put together a video clip of her best moments. Lomuke Group We recorded 9 songs: Anya Kar, Chepo Laleiyo, Kirap, Kiter, Kiyuar, Asoiyen, Adong’o and Montonyo. The women were dressed in white, carrying sticks a…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…nt we had to abandon the day, leaving a separate village and two groups stranded and wet. As we write this we are working out how to see them this week. Chelagat Lebo – ‘Chela’ Finally, we have been joined by Chela. She’s amazing and was there taking down the tent during the deluge. It should be noted that most of the Singing Wells crew were in the vans by this time. Chela is a professional documentary maker and Kathy interviewed her in detail. Th…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…continents. Tabu Osusa founded Ketebul Music in 2007 with a goal to record and promote traditional East African music. Tabu laments the fact that the music heritage of the region is being eroded. He says, ‘For reasons I can’t fully explain, contemporary East African music has lost touch with its tribal roots. Our most popular musicians find far more inspiration in western music than they do with East African music. I worry about this. As a people,…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…The surviving bull, Sigerer, was re-taken and brought back to Kitale. In celebration, the owner slaughtered poor Sigerer to feed the posse. As Kathy pointed out to Teriet, the real hero of the song was the dog, not poor Sigerer, who’s sole role was really to walk to Uganda and back and die. Masirtarit Finally, we recorded the ill-fated Masirtarit, a wonderful female folk choir with great songs. They had waited all day for their turn only to find…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…ey talks and the whole crew were there by 09.00. Everyone. That‘s the good news. The bad news was no one brought a key for the studio, forcing Tabu to have to drive home and back. We left an hour later. Drive good, but long (roughly 400 kms) with a few little thunder storms and the normal fun with roadworks and trucks. Nice chicken grill in Nakuru for lunch with full team. Fun fact, Nakuru is the birthplace of Nakumatt, the most successful retail…
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…with Singing Wells. “I didn’t really know what to expect of the Batwa of Uganda, and was blown away by the musicianship. I expect to be surprised again!” The last time he was there was about 20 years ago. He thinks the music will be similar to music he has heard in Northern Kenya. He says he is always surprised by the quality of the voices and harmonies. “It’s as if they’ve been professionally trained.” The tribes are generally pastoralists so tra…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…Administrative level 1 is the outline of the countries within the UK – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Administrative level 2 is the outline of the counties of those four countries. To keep things clear, ‘counties’ will now be referred to as adm_level2. Our data is going to be regarding counties. In order for the data to be joined to the counties shapefile, i.e. administrative level 2, the names of the counties in the shapefile and…
How to Map 2: The Map Outline News
…ate a folder called Country Outlines. Within this make a folder called UK, and within that, copy and paste the shapefiles. The address where your shapefiles are saved is now: C:\How To Map\Country Outlines\UK. Getting your map outline into ArcMap Open ArcMap and select Cancel – you want to create a new map rather than opening an existing one. This will give you the completely blank ArcMap screen. Before we do anything else, we’re going to save our…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…o my name and on Sunday I found myself on a plane to Nairobi to meet Jimmy and Andy who had flown out the day before. It’s midnight in Nairobi when I arrive at the Fairview Hotel – in torrential rain. Jimmy and Andy have been working in the Ketebul Studio all day and are ready to retire for the night. We say a quick hello and arrange to meet for breakfast at 7.00am. Tomorrow we are off to Uganda. MONDAY Tabu, Ketebul Music’s founder, arrives at th…