UOBDU report on Singing Wells visit to the Batwa, Kisoro Uganda News
It’s exactly a year since we took the Singing Wells project to Kisoro to record the music of the Batwa. Since then we have been pleased to hear news updates from our friends and hosts at UOBDU about the Batwa communities we visited. This week UOBDU Coordinator Zaninka Penninah sent a detailed report to us with feedback about all the music groups who performed for the Singing Wells project. The good news is that being involved in the project seems…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…styles. This could go on, such as with information about dress, language, history of conflict, customs etc. Below is an example of how the layers on the map can be used.. Distribution of all percussion instruments Distribution of melodic percussion instruments Distribution of only ankle bells The map above gives an indication of where ankle bells are generally used in East Africa: broadly in Uganda and in specific parts of Kenya….
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…All the time, the high rises of Kampala were in view but it felt like an altogether not very nice place. The harsh divide between wealth and poverty is alarmingly clear, and the architecture spells it out. Ultimately we all made it to super-market where we loaded up with money, mobile phone cards and other sundries and headed out. The William car stopped to pick up Akello, a lovely Ugandan singer/songwriter, who is joining the group as our Influen…
Northern Uganda: Day 0 – London to Entebbe Story
…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 in Kisoro), Charles and Simba (the Rottweiler who feast on Kisoro locusts during our 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…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ishing lines. The two wooden beams are bamboo sticks and wood chips bonded together using bees wax, which helps create a deep echoing sound. Gender: The nyatiti is traditionally only played by a man. The first four days after a male’s birth and a male’s death in the Luo are said to be very special in their culture. The lower four strings of the nyatiti represent the first four days of his birth, and the upper four strings represent the four days a…
Day 9: Ketebul Studios with Ben Kisinja Story
…speed of light and transformed the song. He was so good, we decided to put together a magic moment. Watch this space for videos. We recorded right through to 9PM and the ‘northern folks’ rushed to the airport. The Ketebul crew continued to work in the studio, led by Jessie who loves bringing Singing Wells musicians into the studio. Hunter and Jimmy will board our flight at about 11PM and with a 12 midnight wheels up, we will officially end the ‘fi…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…ivutia, went on a recce around Northern Uganda in September to help us put together an itinerary, I endeavored to discover a little more about the music we’d be discovering. Gulu: First we will discover the music of the Acholi tribe in Agago, where a variety of different styles of music are performed, each with there own different purposes. Click here to learn about the Acholi People. 1. We will hopefully see a performance of the Bwola, a traditio…
Day 8: Ketebul Studios with the Otacho Young Stars Story
…cians we were discovering were often so good, we needed 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 r…
Lugbara Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…ur fieldtrip in the towns of Arua and Pakwach) Population: Around 900,000 History: They were known in the 19th century as ‘The Naked People’, due to the lacking importance of clothes in their culture. In the early days, the Lugbara were a mainly chiefdom-based community. They did not have kingdoms and kings presiding over them as like other ethnic groups in Uganda. They mainly had chiefs who were their leaders. They formed friendly alliances with…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…ed Kewamoi Women Dancers from the same area. These women have been singing together since 1982 and sing in a lot of events in the area. They focus on traditional songs. They wear white blouses with blue patterned sarongs, decorated with golden designs and lines, looking like trees and fruits. Hunter felt the costumes represented the landscape. Eddie did three Influences sessions – two with the first group playing guitar on ‘Ribwege’, a song about…
Day 5: Recording the Marakwet Story
…nity between the Marakwet and Pokot tribes. They are also about important historical events and praising ceremonies such as weddings, births, circumcisions and funerals. They are also used for passing information on from generation to generation. The younger generation also 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…
Day 4: the Pokot Tribes Story
…mply 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 and the men carried spears and their portable chairs/sleeping pillows. Kalomoywa We recorded 8 songs with them and a magic moment of wonderful chorus. The songs were: Kinya…
Day 3 continued – an interview with Steve Kivutia Story
…erview with Steve Kivutia Steve was born in 1982 in Nairobi but his ‘home’ is the village of Kakamenga; his father moved villages to Moi’s Bridge (names after Kenyan President at the time). He was born in Mata Hospital and sent to Maseno Highschool, graduating in 2000. During school he loved Alpha Blondy, a reggae artist from the Ivory Coast, but also loved Hip Hop. He took a gap year and the joined a university to take computer classes in 2002-3….
Singing Wells – Origins News
…ough a series of e-mails that travelled the world, Tabu and I were brought together by Joyce Nyairo, then of the Ford Foundation, East Africa office. After several long e-mail exchanges and a few Skype calls, we agreed to start the Singing Wells project. We both knew we wanted to do something to preserve the music but it took us a while to define exactly what to do. Finally there was a eureka moment – the best thing we could do was to go the music…
Day 3: Kitale to Kapsokwony, Kenya Story
…hoot of the trip – Kapsokwony Kenya, 56 kilometers from Kitale. We drove onto the athletic grounds of Chesamis High School to record four groups. Our fixer was ’50 Cows’ – clearly taken from 50 Cent, but taking the Kalenjin love of cattle to a new level. 50 Cows is a local journalist and student at United States International University (USIU). The Music Groups Ben Kisinja First up for recording was Ben Kisinja, a wonderful guitarist in the typica…
Day 2: Nairobi to Kitale & an interview with Pato Story
…s. Nice chicken grill in Nakuru for lunch with full team. Fun fact, Nakuru is the birthplace of Nakumatt, the most successful retail chain in Kenya. It started as Nakuru Mattresses, hence ‘Nakumatt’. We arrived in time for dinner at the Kitale Club, where we are staying for the next two nights. Tomorrow we will drive another 200 kms to record the Sabaot. A wee bit too much time in the jeeps….. Singing Wells – The Crew Tabu, Ketebul CEO, Driver, In…