A Report by Professor James Isabirye – Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: Nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion News
…ers, and is currently working on a project to restore the lost lyre, the Entongooli. You can read more about this project on our website here. We are very grateful to be partnered with such a visionary for the future, and protector of traditional East african music and instruments. We know that generations to come will be grateful for the work he has put in to continue these traditions. He has also written a report analysing how indigenous learnin…
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…
Ketebul Music presents Shades of Benga Online News
…ul Music have just launched Episode 2 of their online series Shades of Benga Online, to go alongside their book ‘Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya 1946 -2016’. You can watch the latest episode below, and also find out more at their website here. Shades of Benga: The Story of Popular Music in Kenya delves into the foundations of modern Kenyan music, examining external influences from the English waltz to Afro Cuban Rumba and ho…
Singing Wells Approaches 5 Million Views News
…ited to see that our hard work is paying off – in the last few months we have 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…
Central and Eastern Kenya: Day 1 – Nairobi to Kiongwe to Muranga Story
…trunk of a banana tree; it says that the trunk can’t be climbed by boys. Mutongoi: This is a song sung to a political leader in the area. The song praises the politician and asks the people to vote for him – he’s Kyonekana na nengwe. His name means, “if seen give it to him”. Kolleji or College: This is sung in the Itheke genre. The song praises a local politician (Major Mutina Muluvi) who takes graduate students to work at Equity Bank and high sch…
Happy new year from Singing Wells News
…, and that you’ve been bringing in the year by listening to lots of traditional East African music. Before we start posting exciting news about the upcoming year, here’s a quick recap of what we got up to in 2015: 1. We went discovering the lost music of the Ugandan Kingdoms In Nov/ Dec 2015 we travelled between Kampala and Jinja in Uganda in search of the lost music and musicians of the royal palaces. We posted regular updates about our journey a…
Singing Wells surpasses 500,000 YouTube hits! News
…ring our work discovering, recording, archiving and celebrating the traditional music of East Africa on this channel and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support. Our YouTube channe l features videos from our trips across Kenya and Uganda, including visiting the tribes of the Kenyan Coast, Central and Eastern Uganda, our work to share the music of the Batwa community and the Luo community. We’ve told the story of repatriating Kenya’s music he…
Music Depositories and Archives around the World News
…continent on the West, here is a sample of the World Route programme in Equatorial Guinea. 6. Putumayo Putumayo is a World Music record label that was established in 1993 in order ‘to introduce people to the music of the world’s cultures.’ The man behind it all is Dan Storper, who like so many others who now work to solve this problem, found there was a lack of world music available in the US, and not just in stores; even if you wanted to stock it…
A History of Recording East African Music News
…to go with his 1500 sound records. After his missionary work, he became Curator of the Uganda Museum and while there collected many musical instruments. He received a grant from the British Government in 1949 – demonstrating that even Government authorities began to realise how essential documenting traditional African music was – which enabled him to record these 1500 recordings with the help of a sound engineer, who was responsible for the fanta…
Promotion of Batwa Culture/Music: UOBDU report Nov 2013 News
…usly been granted by Abubilla. The Batwa beneficiaries include Mikingo, Birara, Gatera, Mperwa, Kanyabukungu and Kabahenda . Therefore this report indicates the procedures used by UOBDU tourism committee that executed the work of purchase and designing the costumes and instruments for all the six groups. On 7th January 2013 the team identified the two service providers who were used by the organized before to design T-shirts and wrappers clothes f…
Ketebul Music: A Year in Review News
…oing in 2013. Here is the voice of Tabu. “A New Studio: Our first big milestone is a new studio. We refurbished our studio and brought in new equipment. We used our own savings for this to build a better studio and are very proud. Nick Lader, a sound engineer from the UK, helped improve the studio with bass traps, etc… so we could really do a better job. Nick was very hands on and did a great job. He now does a lot of work with us, mastering and m…
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
…le weaving but very utilitarian. The other big change is the arrival of potatoes. We are in potato country now and the roadsides are covered with them. Otherwise, the same road rules apply so we won’t repeat ourselves. We suppose a description of inside the car is overdue. So let’s get the basics out of the way. Some of us sleep. Some of us put on our iPods and drift off to a faraway place, usually not involving an African road at night. But we ar…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…and served dozens of times to spare someone a fast execution as a collaborator. We then arrived at Joshua’s village. It was the most beautiful we’ve seen with four-five small thatched huts, each painted with patterns. There was a large clay oven in the middle of the village and the whole grounds were landscaped with flowers. The village was so well swept and so often that you could see by the raised area under the huts that they had swept 6 inche…
Singing Wells – The Story So Far News
…Abubilla Music Foundation which supports the Singing Wells project. Your donation will help give much needed financial support to tribal music groups in East Africa. By supporting these artists, we can help them keep their cultural music traditions alive and give them opportunities to gain a sustainable income from their music. Thank you. Preview our book “Victoria, I’ve just received the Singing Wells Project book. It’s fantastic to see what t…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…etty sure that you will find under it 6 or 7 ladies selling pyramids of potatoes, green oranges, etc… The fruit and vegetables complement the plethora of cows, sheep, goats and chickens found along the road, somehow connected and protected by a distant owner. And then there are the bikes, generally falling into two categories. There’s the rideable load, where the bike is carrying simple things like doors, coffins, gates or water bottles and the bi…