The Birara Batwa Community Story
…e the Influences series. Since our visit to Kisoro we have been in regular contact with the local NGO the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Their latest report to us included the following information about the Birara group: “This is one of the communities that is still cherishing music and dance as the Batwa culture it is still leading and very creative. The community members also share the knowledge on culture and pass…
A recording studio which fits into the back of an SUV Story
…nda!) We can also combine the two recording units into one to increase the number of inputs, while still working off battery power. The laptops use Avid ProTools recording software – an industry standard for recording and music production. The microphones we have chosen are industry standard models used in studios the world over but, most likely, not seen in the villages of East Africa. The equipment has been carefully selected so it can easily fi…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…ces, here in Ug, this group is mostly undermined, it was so humbling to my spirit that you got this far with them and their recording trips to the studios in Nairobi. I was here shedding tears when I saw Winyo totally and perfectly singing the Batwa dance song and dancing a long with them, indeed that is what music is all about especially to reach out to the unreachables (sic) to me, I salute you guys, you indeed communicated not to them only but…
73,603 views on YouTube News
…ls YouTube channel……73,603 views and still counting! It’s not a meaningful number in itself (like a nice round 100,000 – our next target) but it does mean more and more people are finding us and enjoying what we are all about – bringing the more traditional sounds of East Africa to an enthusiastic audience. Thanks for watching! Our top 3 video hits In third place, this is the Nyerere Wa Konde Music Club from Sita Village, Gede in Kenya’s Malindi…
A new type of city Story
…hat the capital would be like; this image speaks a lot about the city. The number of ‘proper’ buildings were few and in only the small centre. It was hilly and most of the roads were not built for vehicles. The shops were small shacks mostly and at night stayed open, lit by candle light. There were animals everywhere and make-shift houses, which starkly contrasted to the taller office buildings you could see in the distance. Despite this unconvent…
The Boy with the Headphones Story
…hen we travelled to the Mperwa Batwa community. Consisting of just a small number of families, the Mperwa have settled on a small area of borrowed land just a few kilometres from the town. At first glance the setting appeared to be spectacular, with the lush valley and terraced hills of local farms as a backdrop and the magnificent Virunga volcanos in the distance. But we were quickly struck by the impoverishment of this small community. As we a…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…other detector ourselves (#2) Once through this line we lined up for Kenya airlines. We are our own queue and it took a while to check in our 23 bags and convince them to let us carry our 11 carry on bags… Once checked in we then waited in visa line. No issues. By this time the flight is calling for boarding… There’s another line at the gate to go through Kenya security. Big queue and one very angry mzungu who was fed up. We all had to take off ou…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…ere ‘trained’ to shoot in a matter of days, and were periodically beaten a number of strokes depending on 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 i…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…homage to it, you will be rewarded. After the massive contributions to the spirit last night we were given two great troupes in Naguru. Naguru is a suburb of Kampala and we forced our two big vans through the crowded urban streets to a little square where we set up for recording. Exactly 24 hours ago we set up to record in Northern Uganda in the village of Obuell-Lira. This was the most idyllic rural scene we’ve experience – with picture perfect h…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…with his father’s group and then he founded this group in 2007. They use a number of styles, most notably Sengenya, which we covered fully in our March 2011 field recordings in Malindi. We interviewed Swalhe Mwatela Massai and his grandson, Ali Tungwa : Q to the grandfather: In contrast to Uganda, we have seen many villages in Kenya where the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. Ho…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…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 box. Its contents come out by request. Then there’s the third store – it is a little shed or lean to made from scraps of wood or just a sheet covering the ground, offering scant shade. Inventory comes in the morning and leaves at night….
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…
Reporting back on recording trip to Kisoro, SW Uganda News
…s message from Henry Neza, UOBDU Capacity Building Officer and our 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/…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…gains and the record levels. We then name our audio files so that the take numbers continue from the last performance. We are careful that each take has its unique and concurrent take number on the off chance that audio files become separated from their record location. This way we can always work out exactly where each audio file has been recorded and when. At the end of the day it is important to backup the files. Each night, back at our accommo…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…(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 it! There was also the difficulty of classification. There are hundreds of different language groups and dialects between tribes…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…ir field visit in March, where Tabu organised a ‘Hall of fame concert’. He opened the concert with the famous “Kothbiro”, which featured in the film ‘The Constant Gardiner’. Here it is: There’s a wonderful story about Andy’s recommendation to Gary Barlow’s production team to have Ogada play in a track called ‘Sing’, recorded specially for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Read more about that here, and give it a listen. The Nyatiti Origins:…