Tracey Instrument Collection News
…mily, who have built on the legacy their father, Hugh Tracey created; more information on the ILAM and Hugh Tracey himself can be found on the History of Archivists of East African Music (coming soon). Siilili bowed lute This is a lute of the Gishu (also known as Gisu or Bagisu) people, who mainly live in the Mbale district of Eastern Uganda, on the slopes of Mount Elgon. The skin stretched across the cylinder is held with small pegs and two metal…
SWP Uganda 2013 – our proposed itinerary News
…ese groups were identified by James Isabirye who will be our local liaison contact while we are in Uganda. Steve met James following a chance meeting with an old friend while in Kampala for the ‘recce’ trip. Here’s an extract from Steve’s notes: “I had a chance meeting with an old friend from Addis Ababa, Teshome Wondimu, who runs an organisation called Selam which hosts an annual festival in Addis Ababa. While chatting to Teshome, I mentioned tha…
The Birara Batwa Community Story
…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 on the knowledge to the young…
The Batwa Community Story
…he wonderful music and dance of the Ugandan Batwa, here is some background information about this unique group of people. The Batwa people of Uganda The Batwa, historically a nomadic, forest dwelling community of hunter-gatherers, are widely acknowledged to have been the first human residents of the forest areas which stretch across much of what is now Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and DRC. In recent history however, the Batwa have become a displaced an…
What people say about Singing Wells News
…rary Cultures & Immigration, The Manitoba Museum “I found a lot of helpful information on the Singing Wells website and it helped a great deal in being able to hear what the instruments sound like when played and to see pictures of how they are held, etc. It sounds like you have a wonderful project. I would welcome any assistance you could give me as I am excited to share this wonderful collection with our visitors.” Babra Bwisho, Singer, Kampala,…
The New Singing Wells website News
…. You can listen to each of the albums in full and then purchase them in the knowledge that all of your money will go back to the performer, wherever possible. Search facility We’ve added a search facility so you can easily find the information you’re looking for. And finally… Please get in touch with us via Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you think of the new site! Our thanks go to Wes Burden and the team at Nebulo Strata who worked tire…
Fiona’s story Story
…Fiona has been able to attend junior school through the sponsorship of the United Organization for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU), an NGO based in Kisoro. She is a wonderful role model for the Batwa community and is proving that, with the right opportunity, Batwa children can achieve the same educational goals as any other child in the district. Everyone is hoping that Fiona will be able to continue being sponsored through her senior school y…
The Singing Wells supports Ketebul Music’s ‘Kenya at 50’ project News
…of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. Colmore spent time working for the Kenya Information Service around this time – possibly as a photographer. He was instrumental in setting up the African Broadcasting service Entertainment unit, which included the guitarist Fundi Konde – said to be the first electric guitarist in East Africa. He also set up Hi Fidelity Productions and studio in Nairobi – a promotion and public relations company, which produced adv…
The Beat of Kenya News
A short while ago we were contacted by Andrea Dyck who is the curator of Contemporary Cultures at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, Canada. Andrea explained that she was planning an exhibition of traditional African musical instruments and during her research she had come across Singing Wells. We were able to provide Andrea with some information about the instruments and, importantly, some photos and videos of the instruments being played, which 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…
Promotion of Batwa cultural music: UOBDU report March 2013 News
…oject to record the music of the Batwa in Kisoro, Uganda in December 2011. United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU) Narrative Report on the Promotion of Batwa Cultural Music Since April 2012, UOBDU started implementing a project responsible for promotion of Batwa cultural heritage, supporting the performance of music and drama to local audience and to allow UOBDU to monitor and update the performance of the groups visited by The…
How music archives can help communities News
…were recently found by Chris Kidd, a Ph.D. student who was working for the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU). Chris took the recordings back to Uganda and re-introduced them to the Batwa people who had since become a poor, landless and disempowered community following their eviction from the forests due to the gorilla conservation project in the mountainous south west region of the country. In particular, Chris played a r…
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/…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…retty flowers and strange guinea fowl pottering about. The two groups were united around 10 with our two drivers William and Emanuel and set off for Kampala. As promised Kampala traffic was a nightmare. The William Team (Jimmy/Pato and Hannah) tried to take a short cut, but the road was closed and we ended up winding through some very poor areas around Kampala with a truck not designed for essentially footpaths. All the time, the high rises of Kam…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ipedia), 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 in East Africa, meaning that within the huge range of instr…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…hat here. Watch out for our Field Report of the trip and we will keep updating the Singing Wells website with news and information!…