A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…earch into music learning practices. After extensive work reviving the Bigwala, his report focuses on the indigenous teaching methods used with the young people involved in the project, what this meant for the sustainability for the instruments future, and how this impacted the young people’s identity and associations with the Bigwala-playing community. You can find the full report on the Sage website here: https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/EBNM…
Fundraiser for Matthew Watmon News
We are sad to say that a special talent, and a dear friend of Singing Wells, Matthew Watmon is currently in a critical condition in hospital. We are urgently trying to raise funds to support him and his family in this difficult time, and we hope that some of our followers may be able to help us. If you are based in East Africa, please get in touch with Matthew’s brother, Constantine Odida ((MTN) +256-782-236-742 and (Airtel) +256-704-261-037). I…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…ve almost doubled our views on our Youtube channel and are now approaching 5 million total views across our videos. When we started Singing Wells almost ten years ago, we set an aim to bring the traditional music of East Africa to a wider audience. It amazing to see the Youtube algorithm agreeing that this is a project worth showing people! We can’t wait to bring more songs and stories to the world. Keep an eye out on the Singing Wells Youtube cha…
Central & Eastern Uganda: Day 4, Part 1 – Reflections Story
December 3rd: reflections at the Kampala museum This is our final day in the field in Uganda. Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi to record in the Ketebul Studios: we identified a whole set of extraordinary musicians from our 2013 visit to Uganda and have invited them back to do studio recordings. But today, we focused on two things: 1) Discussing in detail some of our observations from our time exploring the royal instruments of the kingdoms of Ug…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 3 – Nkubu to Mariene to Murungurune to Nkubu Story
…the bugs). Intro: Authi style. Lead singers are Kawi Mwiti and Francis Rithaa. Kaura Bechau: Lead singers are Jacob Karia and Mungania Muga. This is for entertaining in all seasons. Its use is unrestricted and is sung in remembrance of Bechau, an elder of Njuri Njeke, who always encourages the community not to forget their culture, especially Njun Njeke, the head of the council of elders. Ramare twasemania: Lead is Francis Rithaa and Lawi Mwiti. I…
Central Uganda: Day 0 – Nairobi/London to Entebbe Story
…iar environment of the Airport Guesthouse. An early start the next day meant not staying up long on arrival – little did we know that a thunderstorm of biblical proportions was on its way….. A Note About Our Sponsors We are very grateful to have two sponsors for this recording trip. Firstly, The Mara Group are sponsoring a full recording day and have chosen to support our day in Mbale (Day 4: Thursday 21st Nov). We are also very pleased to have th…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…e, it boasts the accolade of ‘The Largest Archive of African Music in sub Saharan Africa’. When it was originally founded by Tracey, it was located in the Gauteng province of South Africa but, when Tracey died in 1977, private funding had dried up. His son, Andrew Tracey, took over as Director and Rhodes University, in the East Cape province of South Africa, agreed to host the ILAM. Its aims are ‘to discover, record, analyze, and archive the music…
Report from Womex 2013 News
…look closely at, if we are to make the Singing Wells library commercially available at any stage in the future. In the ‘Growing your audience through Social Media‘ conference, the production team from BBC Radio’s Jazz on 3 led a discussion on social media and how it can be used and has been used to increase interaction with the program. One interesting idea was when they held a Google hangout between guest Moby and a few of his friends and live…
A quick summary of the Singing Wells Project News
…I prattled on. So, I came home, woke early and decided to tell the stories again but this time with music. I do hope you enjoy. The good news is you can ‘turn me off’ if you need to get on with your life. My poor friend never had that chance… Forgive me, but here are 10 things I would like to say about Singing Wells…. 1. Singing Wells is all About Ensuring that others can hear about the Macedonia Band: We’ll provide background later, but let’s sto…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…nd, not the place) and the way music saved dozens of lives as the village managed to survive occupation by the rebels and reoccupation by the government. We then hinted at problems. Rather than leave at 13:00 to travel to Kampala, we were forced back to Soroti with a broken wheel and only managed to hit the road again at 15:30. So we knew we were in for one of those ‘African Night Drives’ we so often do and so often swear we’ll never do again. We’…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…of our best village visits combined with a long, nightmare journey to Kampala. The Macedonia Band We met the leader of the Macedonia Band at the Soroti Hotel and he led us to his village, Obuell-Lira, a 30 minute drive down rich clay roads. On the way, Joshua told us about the history of the group, which was founded in 1982. The group and its song Uganda Land of Freedom is legendary in the Teso region (the name for the collection of villages arou…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…ter jug on his/her head. You see in the distance yellow dots and you are guaranteed to find a beautiful Ugandan child smiling beneath it. The women are altogether different, carrying baskets of nuts and spices, water jugs, charcoal, thatched bundles, etc…. This, of course, gives them a ram rod straight posture, giving them a majectic air and a very practical crown. Before talking about the markets, let’s now talk about the middle of the road, wher…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…in the morning and Lira by the afternoon. So with a little scrambling we managed to invite our second group of the day, Cieng Dwong, to travel to us from their village Alebtong. All well and good, but our poor travelers didn’t arrive with us until about 1900, by which time it was pretty dark – okay, very dark. The good news is we have good lighting equipment. The bad news, good lights attract bugs. These are Nile bugs, mind you, so in addition to…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…ers are picked from the top villages around the area. Their leader is Cwinyaai Atya, Richard. Their first song was Tambara, in the Osegu style. It is all about a stubborn girl who doesn’t want to marry early. Here they are, dancing in glory: The second song was magnificent, called Oramba, the name of a hunter, in the style ‘Aliku’. This style is traditionally performed around the fire, as a celebration of the hunter’s coming back from a successful…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
Long day but glorious. We woke early, loaded our bags and headed out to Awach, about an hour away from Gulu. We settled in the beautiful village of Paibona Tuga, which is known for the music of the Likembe, the thumb piano. As yesterday, we settled 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, u…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…and their instrumental song Dingi Dingi. Here’s the video: Umuny Jubi Ite Yaa They were followed by Umuny Jubi Ite Yaa (essentially the name of their camp plus Ite Yaa, meaning gathering under the Yaa tree). Then they sang: Welo Obino (Let’s Celebrate now that vistor’s have come) Odok Gang (A celebration of peace after war and call to go home), Balo Murali (aka Aloka Loka). Magic Moment Here’s Welo Obino and Odok Gang: There were three young percu…