The Boy with the Headphones Story
…k of one of the songs through his headphones and this particular boy overcame his shyness to have give it a try. We could see how hard life is for the Batwa, living on small pieces of borrowed land on the fringes of society but the performance of the Mperwa Dancers did not portray this – it was full of pride and happiness. Once again, we witnessed how important the songs and dances are to the whole Batwa community, from the youngest infant to th…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…why we have called our project ‘Singing Wells’. The inspiration for the name comes from the real-life singing wells of the Samburu tribes people. During the dry season, Samburu herdsmen (and boys) draw much needed water for their cattle from deep wells which they have dug in the parched river bed. As they pull water from these wells they begin to sing, a different song emanating from each well. The animals appear from the bush, seeming to recogni…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…later and our hero has a little money. He’s able to buy the young woman some perfume and she essentially says, ‘I’m yours.’ In the third verse he is singing to the village that the girl is now ready, in love with him, and about to visit the village. He’s won. Agiriama Anging: This song needs a little back ground. In the Coastal areas there are huge rivalries between villages and there are always, what the band calls, “haters.” These are folks tha…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…n your age, in his case it was 300. Odika called it the ‘bush mind’, and sometimes even once soldiers returned that mind would come back again, in nightmares or in daily life. To help returning soldiers they were taken to Gulu Children of War Rehabilitation Centre for 6 months before going home, partly to make sure the rebels couldn’t find you in your home village but also to help the returning soldiers adjust back into normal life. He said even t…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…ur second group was Watmon Cultural Troupe, which was a large dance act of men and women with heavy percussion. Matthew Watmon (above) is the leader of his group, which he started in 1991. The members are from all over Uganda, but generally perform music in the style of Acholi, as Watmon is originally from Kitikum, not far from Gulu up in Northern Uganda, and moved down to Kampala during the war. We love the instrument they played, the Nanga (belo…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…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 watch them dance and move and create the linkages. Q to the grandson: Why are you doing this? Are y…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ally 20 feet wide, 20 feet deep. You enter it and see things on shelves. Sometimes the block has 4 doors, each like a storage shed. Behind each door is a shop. You seldom see anything that has anything to do with the sign out front. Then there is the box. This is about twice as wide as the door. If the door is open, the shop is open. Usually five men in plastic chairs are scattred in the entrance and something is being sold. You don’t go into the…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…guest at the World Travel Market at Excel and I met representatives from a number of organisations and companies in the travel and tourism industry operating in the East African counties we are visiting during our field recording trips. I met Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of the African Travel & Tourism Association and explained a little about Singing Wells and our aims to record and celebrate the cultural music heritage of East Africa. It se…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…erformances. Takes are logged by the day, so the first take of the day becomes take number one. Note 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…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…tled under a big tree in the middle of the village, about 30 metres from some homes, and became surrounded first by goats and then by children. The musicians gradually arrived over the next forty minutes, usually by bike, with either a Likembe or some other percussion. Most of the children settled under the same tree our sound crew was using and sang along to the songs. There was only one set of shrieks, when a 4 foot grass snake slithered through…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…y, this was difficult as information on the subject is fairly scarce and sometimes contradictory. However, the beauty of the map (as with search engines and online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia), it is Open Source and so people from all around the world can add information to make the map a very useful source of information. By creating the basics, as we have, the broad tribal and musical structure of East Africa is there, now we can only add to…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…We then headed off to Gulu at around 2PM (yes, we tend to spend 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 g…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…why we have called our project ‘Singing Wells’. The inspiration for the name comes from the real-life singing wells of the Samburu tribes people. During the dry season, Samburu herdsmen (and boys) draw much needed water for their cattle from deep wells which they have dug in the parched river bed. As they pull water from these wells they begin to sing, a different song emanating from each well. The animals appear from the bush, seeming to recogni…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
…in August as part of Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya @ 50’ music documentary. He teamed up with Andy Patterson while he was here and together they conducted a number of interviews with Kenyan musicians who are now based in the UK. They also had the chance to visit Kenya House in Stratford as a guest of our friends at the Kenya Tourist Board. Here’s Bill’s article published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Where+the+world+got+rea…
How to Map 3: Prepare Your Data News
…he attribute table in it, which should look like this. The column called NAME_2 contains the names of all of the counties. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out a smart way of getting those names out of ArcMap and into Excel, so usually I just copy them out. Luckily for you wondermonkeys, if you’re going to be using the UK unicorn distribution data I’ve cooked up or even just the UK for your country, I’ve already done that for you! Click here to…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…It’s hard to turn away and leave when they are so expecting. They’ve seen me give out a gift and hope I’ll do so again. It’s an awkward moment – the first of many to come. I left London with some gifts in my bag in anticipation of this but the reality of it is that what I have is not only too little to offer to such a large group of children, but also so irrelevant to their real needs. A few skipping ropes, some Dynamo torches, harmonicas. Earlie…