Singing Wells – The Story So Far News
…ikenda. Full of stunning photos and excerpts from our field reports, the 110 page book is a detailed representation of our mission to celebrate and share the unique cultural music heritage of East Africa. Support the Singing Wells project and buy a copy! You can buy a copy of the Singing Wells book at the Blurb Bookstore – just click this link: Singing Wells – The Story So Far The profits we receive from the sale of each book go directly to our…
ATTA is following Singing Wells News
…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 seems Nigel liked what I told him! Operations Manager Lina Vaiksnoriene has been in touch and ATTA are now following our progress on our website and Facebook. We are delighted that Singing Wells is featured on th…
A day in the field with Singing Wells News
…Book Pro 2 MOTU Traveler MK3 Audio Interface 4 Headphone amps 8 Sony MDR-V600 headphones 2 Shure mics & stands 2 Rode Lavalier omni-directional mics 2 Rode NTG-1 condenser Shotgun mics 1 Matched Pair of AKG C414 XL Microphones 1 Matched Pair of Rode NT5 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 th…
The Tribal and Musical Structure of East Africa – Worldmap Research News
…e changing, however. Since the Female Genital Mutiliation or ‘FGM’ Act in 2009 the practice has been on decline, but this year in particular Pokot men have come to women’s aid by rejecting the practice. There were reports in February of this year of men demonstrating with large placards against FGM. One man, Mr Lotolim, a resident of Jumbe village in Amudat District, reported that Pokot men often only resort to polygamy because their first wives h…
Northern Uganda: Day 1 – Entebbe to Gulu Story
…ked lunch. We drove. We drove. And we raced faster and faster to make it to Gulu before DARK, our true horrible enemy on drives. Darkness just fell as we hit Gulu, which was fine, as we slowed right down and joined the chaos of the Gulu city center. We pulled into our hotel at around 1910, only 10 minutes or so after our target time. We pulled into the Acholi Inn, unloaded all the equipment to our rooms and quickly feel into a dinner of Nile Speci…
African Strings: The Nyatiti and The Adungu News
…arly around the valley) you can find many instruments that date back over 5000 years, many, like the nyatiti, are also found in Egyptian hieroglyphs (right). The Luo people are related to the Acholi people of Uganda, a tribe we will come across in our next field visit. They play a similar instrument called the Adungu. Style: As music is mainly functional for the Luo, traditionally a nyatiti player is called upon to play at weddings or funerals, as…
Background on the Music of Northern Uganda News
…Certainly, in the documentary ‘War Dance’ by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix in 2007, people in the North dealt with the scars of the recent attacks by the Lord Resistance Army thorugh playing and making music together. This transcends any past tension between tribal groups. In parallel, music is a fantastic way of holding on to tribal identity, as many villages were evacuated and millions were moved into displacement camps. Being away from home, the tr…
Lango Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…ful unless disturbed. References Curley, Richard T. (1973). Elders, Shades, and Women: Ceremonial Change in Longo, Uganda. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Otiso, Kefa M. (2006). Culture and Customs of Uganda. Ohio: Greenwood Press. (Lango at everculture – 2012) Lango – http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Lango.html#ixzz2AhrHntF4 …
Day 7: In Nairobi – sponsors, blogs and strategy Story
…nd will be a key issue we address as we put forward the next draft of our 2012-2014 Strategy. We worked the afternoon on writing blogs for all the interviews and field visits, including all our song translations. Kathy brought back a full work book of notes. We have realised the growing importance of our ‘field interviewer’ who now spends as much time with the groups before and after their recording sessions as we spend with them recording. We are…
Day 6: Recording the Tugen & back to Nairobi Story
…yre. This moved our departure time from the two hotels (Eldoret Club and Pine Tree) from 8am to about 9.30am. The tyre had a damaged tube that just wore out. We reassembled and headed off for a spectacular trip from an altitude of 2,800m down to 1,114m at one of the floors of the Great Rift Valley. The roads were more winding and steeper than on our trip to Rwanda last November but there was no rain and there were guard rails on the roadside which…
Acholi Tribe Profile – Music of Northern Uganda News
…ist movement lead by Joseph Kony that ravaged Northern Uganda in the late 20th century and early 21st, and has since moved on. As a consequence, the Acoli are now emphasizing the importance of musical, dance and festival tradition, in an attempt to rediscover their cultural glory. Language: They speak a Southern dialect of Luo. Origins: Folklore states that Luo was the first man, and sprung from the ground, son of Jok (God) and Mother Earth. His s…
Music of Northern Uganda News
…unded the centre with her brother, Ugandan sculptor David Lukani Odwar in 2005, transforming a former colonial golf club to a place for training and exchange and to promote and celebrate local cultural achievements. Joyce and David aim to engage people in post-conflict Northern Uganda in the creative arts; resuscitate local arts, crafts and arts education and recover, heal and develop local cultural traditions. With Joyce Laker Director TAKS Cen…
Singing Wells – Origins News
…ic labels on two separate continents. Tabu Osusa founded Ketebul Music in 2007 with a goal to record and promote traditional East African music. Tabu laments the fact that 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 worr…
Bill Odidi reporting on Singing Wells from London News
…icle published in Business Daily Africa: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Where+the+world+got+real+flavour+of+Kenya+in+London/-/1248928/1480860/-/djb5mf/-/index.html Photos from Kenya House …
Day 1: In Nairobi, packing and talking to Tabu Story
…The plan tomorrow is to travel up the Great Rift Valley to Kitale, about 400 km northwest of Nairobi. In Kitale we’ll record the Sabaot. The next day we will drive to Kapenguira to record the Pokot. After that we go to Eldoret then onto Iten and Kapsowar to record the Marakwet and Keiyo. The last day to go to L Baringo to record the Tugen. Tabu is not sure what to expect of the tribal music in the villages we are visiting but he is always surpris…
Victoria’s reflections on the music of the Batwa Story
…s like Jimmy suffered the biggest attack) and the studio is set-up for a 9.00am start. Things run a little late (we’re becoming accustomed to delays) as we wait for people to arrive and when they do we start another full day of recording. As we are at the hotel, some of the other guests gather to see what’s going on outside under the verandah where we have set up the ‘studio’. They can hardly believe their eyes – and ears – and are delighted to wi…