Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…Owic, Lar Wodo Dwok Cen. Here’s a selection: Ribbe Ber Dancers Our second group was Ribbe Ber, another female dancing group. They had beautiful feather head-dresses. Their songs included: Lolo Lok La Moi Omako Kwot Kicinge Lakwat Dyangi Pe Kotacwer Lokakura Bor. https://youtu.be/4Jt5-pqpOWw https://youtu.be/Aw2Nj1GNpGo https://youtu.be/5SLa0biLa54 Ribbe Ber Drummers Our third group was the stunner. It was also called Ribbe Ber, but this was the d…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…the difficulty of classification. There are hundreds of different language groups and dialects between tribes in East Africa, meaning that within the huge range of instruments there were also a number of different names for them. This became very interesting to discover however, and over time that information could gather on the map, making it more comprehensive. What did you find most interesting about the data you collected? What stood out for m…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…their feet showing how fresh they are for purchase, children gathering in groups of 2 to 5 to wave as we ride past, small groups of young men sitting in chairs beneath large trees greeting us with squinted eyes and ne’er a smile, women of all shapes and sizes on 20 kilometre walks with every household item imaginable on their heads and everywhere the magical colors of green grass against terracotta mud that seeps up the walls of every dwelling. B…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ginda Boys, featuring Oganda Joginda. Watch and listen: The second nyatiti group featured Okumu K’Orengo, another fantastic player of the nyatiti. We were reminded of the critical importance of capturing the cultural legacy of East Africa with tribal music when this extraordinary musician, Okumu K’Orengo, died only weeks after our visit. Appropriately, his last recording with us was a funeral song that our team at Ketebul Music felt was the best p…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…n Murchison 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 ma…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…k 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 Otacho Young Stars….
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…he Acholi and the Alur. They are part of the Luo group or “Western Nilotic Group”, and so all of the languages in this area are fairly similar to understand. Origins: Their original homeland was north of Lake Turkana where they used to live along with the Jie and the Karimojong. This means, by implication, that the Langi are also related to Dodoth, Lotuko, Topsa, and Turkana of Kenya. Together with the Iteso, Kumam and Karimojong, they comprise th…
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…rent soils. Our obligation here is to judge, is to prioritise, to separate groups and find some groups that we should be bringing back to the Ketebul studios and supporting with contemporary studio musicians and sound engineers ready to bring new arrangements. The sponsors discussed that these missions are sometimes in conflict. If we spend too much of our time showing videos of more traditional tribes singing traditional songs, we might turn off…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…d back up the other side. The second car bites the dust From Karabaret, we travelled to Nakuru and then half of us travelled on in the pitch black to Nairobi. The Nakuru crew, in the white van, was stopped cold by a broken alternator belt. The other car was able to flag down a matatu (small van public transport that fill the roads everywhere) and head back. We agreed to take off the belt altogether and get them to Nakuru before dark (with no power…
Alur Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…itional monarchies in 1966. Language: Part of the Western Nilotic language group, their language is closely related to Acholi. Some Alur speak Lendu. Origins: Their tradition states that they migrated from southern Sudan with other Luo following the Nile banks. Their original homeland is said to have been Rumbek on the confluence of the Nile and the Bahr-el- Ghazel rivers. The Alur legend of origin says that there once lived a great King called At…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…sing but they did not come today. They mainly have older members in their group. The group have never been recorded before today and they were very excited about others hearing their traditional music. Kathy spoke to them about their dress and its significance. The white paint in lines and crosses on the men’s arms represents the River Nile and where the tribe originated from. They came from Israel to Egypt along the Nile to the Sudan. This occur…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…driving), long after darkness fell, we added up the day, in wonder at the numbers of songs we recorded: 5 groups, 33 songs, 3 Influences Sessions and 2 Magic Moments. Pokot music is all about the dance and vocal harmonies – most music with origins in nomadic tribes is about the dance/vocals not the instruments, because at best you could carry a horn during your endless movement. Sila Dancers Lomut Traditional Dancers This groups walked 120 kms fr…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…. All our “world famous” Singing Wells T-shirts were soaked. All the music groups were soaked. All the cows were soaked. 50 Cows was soaked. A deluge. It meant 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…
Music of Northern Uganda News
…the ari (log drums) and a tin sheet for percussion. Aynu Traditional Music Group Travelling to Nebbi The drive from Arua to Nebbi is 175km on mostly excellent roads. Here Steve and Patrick saw a perfomance by the Alur Kingdom Troupe who are based in a village called Nyaravuru, just outside Nebbi and represent the Alur, Madi and Kebu tribes. They are well known in East Africa and have performed at various state functions in Uganda and also at the…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…project on Kenya’s Coastal Region around Malindi and Mombasa and have now travelled across the country recording 30 musicians and traditional music groups representing three major tribes: the Mijikenda, the Luo and the Kalenjin. We have also travelled to Uganda to record the amazing musicians of the Batwa tribes, bringing many of them back to Nairobi to record them in Ketebul Music studios. We have designed two mobile recording units which can be…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…g behind Ben’s songs: Song Translations of Ben Kisinja Chebonet Our second group was Chebonet, a traditional folk group with several percussionists and a wonderful young lead female vocalist. They were a great choral group with some wonderful dancing using shields and spears. Again, Eddie stepped in for an Influences session with a subgroup to record. Please click here to read the meaning behind the songs of the Chebonet group: Song translations o…