The Boy with the Headphones Story
…d in detail by following the featured link below, but for now we will tell you about this little boy with the headphones. It was on our second day in Kisoro when 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 loc…
The origins of Singing Wells Story
…the music heritage of the region is being eroded. He says, ‘For reasons I can’t fully explain, contemporary East African music has lost touch with its tribal roots. Our most popular musicians find far more inspiration in western music than they do with East African music. I worry about this. As a people, we risk losing our deep cultural heritage – the role of traditional music and dance in our lives. And as musicians, we risk becoming undifferent…
Day 8: Entebbe to Nairobi and Ketebul Studios Story
…hey meet years 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…
Day 7 (pm): Recording at the Airport Guesthouse, Entebbe Story
…r 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 though he never became one of them, being surrounded by people of that mindset for that length of time left him in search of the meaning of right and wrong. Odika has two other brothers: Okot Mike, who was held as a soldier in the bush for 2 years, is now studying Eco…
Day 7 (am) – back to Kampala: Naguru to Entebbe Story
…being deserving. The song says that first you must dig in the field before you can eat. The lyric in swahili in the chorus: “tula kula kua jembe” means ” through our work in the field we can eat”. It is based on the traditional ideology that hard work should always come first. After hearing this set we asked them to do a Magic Moment and then join Akello for Influences to sing ‘Awinyo’, which sounded magical. Our second group was Watmon Cultural T…
An Evening with Mserego Mwatela Group News
…here the traditional music is only played by the older generation. And yet your group is so young and vibrant. How have you managed to do this? A: To get the young people involved I decided to go 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 t…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Kampala (a driving story) Story
…is all about the music. Nothing replaces a great take of great musicians. You can forgive a lot with a great song. You will be happy to know we’ve just passed Jinja and are roughly two hours from Kampala on a well paved two lane road. We have moved from sheer terror that we will be run off the road by Mac trucks to a growing lack of confidence that we will arrive in Kampala before the hotel kitchens closed. Given that we forgo lunch as a rule we…
Northern Uganda: Day 6 – Soroti to Obuell-Lira to Soroti Story
…f life on earth and the promises of peace and happiness in heaven. https://youtu.be/csdralhwXyA The second song was Lubang’a Ber, which is essentially ‘God is Good.’ https://youtu.be/salvEHTKDjE This was followed by ‘Seeds and Land’, an education song in English telling people to value and work the land, using it to solve their poverty. https://youtu.be/jvL-_gQ8BHA The fourth song was Yesu Alisema, essentially, ‘Jesus said’, which is another gospe…
Northern Uganda: Day 5 – from Pakwach to Soroti (a road trip) Story
…o met carrying 6 giants pots near Acet.. Then there’s just everything else you can carry being hauled to and from the market on the heads of strong women and very strong little kids. It is illegal we suspect for a child of three and older to walk on the road without carrying at least one water 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 altogeth…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – night recording at Fort Murchison Story
…ff and we wanted to capture it on its own. But the subsequent magic moment session lacked something – our friend was a musician in a band, not some studio session guy ‘mailing in his over-dub.’ Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. https://youtu.be/IktMw1iNcq4 https://youtu.be/Hk5DlFHa8Lg And with that, brushed the bugs from our hair and clothes, pulled some beetles from the camera bags and had dinner. Tomorrow is a driving day as we head to o…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…lowing our progress on our website and Facebook. We are delighted that Singing Wells is featured on the front page of their website under the ‘ATTA Likes’ banner! Thank you ATTA – we will keep you posted on our travels in East Africa with news, photos and wonderful music! Victoria…
Northern Uganda: Day 4 – Pakwach to Widiang’a, Nebbi Story
…gi, where Owach Tartizio sang Obimo. We then featured the Adungu, with Okumu Jolly playing Lwangni. And finally, we recorded the Ndara with Omiya Charles playing Mbeta. We loved these musicians the fun of the traditional dances. You got mad at the stubborn girl, you got scared when the hunter returned and you celebrated for the new chief. On the way to Fort Murchison where we were staying, we saw some spectacular stormy scenes as we crossed the Ri…
Northern Uganda: Day 3 – from Gulu to Awach to Pakwach Story
…y sang so softly and it was such a big crowd. But we gave her a lapel microphone and put a microphone directly on the Adungu and recorded. Afterwards, when we turned her up in the mix a magical voice and sound emerged – the ancient lady sitting on the blanket in the middle of this village, surrounded by 100’s had a beautiful, strong, pitch perfect voice. Incredible. She sang: Two Man Dong Lakee Cok Mon Alwak Munu Keya Here’s Two Man Dong: https://…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…Microphones2 Rode professional boom pole 1 K&M telescopic mic stand/boom 1 Canon EOS 7D 1 Canon EOS 60D 1 Canon EOS 5D 1 LED video camera lights 1 Flip HD video camera ThinkTank sun screens (for the laptops) Various Canon zoom and fixed lenses Plus at least 9 Sandisk memory cards and 15 portable back-up drives and a lot of leads and cables! Having settled on our first location the video engineers set up their shots while the audio engineers set up…
Northern Uganda: Day 2 – from Gulu to Acet Story
…h our parents…” Pajoto Youth Group Quite appropriately, after a song about youth, we brought the youth band forward, Pajoto 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 an…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…ccessing the map, this is what your screen would look like. The map, which you can access here, is a result of a platform developed by Harvard University. WorldMap is a great platform for a project like this for several reasons. It is free and open source which means any researcher can work with the source code to extend and improve its functionality, so it is constantly developing and improving. It’s also web-based so it’s easy to access and shar…