Day 4: UOBDU and the Birara Dancers Story
…er’s Rest Guesthouse: After breakfast our first stop was the office of the United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda (UOBDU), where we met Henry Neza, the Capacity Development Co-ordinator, and Alice Nyamihanda, Tourism Officer and the first University graduate amongst the Batwa communities. They are to be our hosts and translators for the two days – we were lucky to be joined by Precious as well, Alice’s five month old daughter. Patrick…
Day 3: From Nairobi to Kigali to Kisoro Story
…r equipment (we really wanted to return with it all!). We then took Kenyan Airlines (new plane with movies!) to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, population roughly a million. We were met by our drivers Arun and John and drove through heavy rains to the Rwanda-Uganda border crossing near Kisoro. After a rather lengthy crossing, we then drove on to our final desitination – the Traveller’s Rest in Kisoro. Five quick things: Rwanda: Beautiful country kn…
Kenya (Coast): Day 4 – the road back to Nairobi Story
…groups were very large, but because of budgets we could only bring a small number. We had good production but we couldn’t get the whole band in their element . Gargar was an example. Huge women’s group with lots of culture things – women’s rights … we could only work with four. We realised it would be better to take the studio to them. We would get a better view and get a more authentic sound. Then Abubilla Music contacted Tabu for a project and w…
Interview with Fifty Cows – fixer for Singing Wells News
…r Kalenjin music with a message to the youth. Their songs are about how to live a good life and be honourable. They are mainly from the 1950’s and 60’s and sound a bit like the Beatles. He doesn’t have recordings of older tribal music. He is the first Kalenjin to ever be a radio presenter. He also presents talk radio programs where people can discuss their opinions about politics and tribal conflicts. The radio is listened to by many across the Ka…
Nick Abonyo (the ‘clapper-man’) News
…lit fires in the house to cook. When he went to primary school Nick had to live with his grandmother in Abasuba because there was a school there. He started going to school when he was eight. He would go home to his parents in August and December for a month. He preferred being in his parent’s village. He liked village life because everything is free there. They grew their own food including maize, sweet potatoes, arrowroot and kale. They fished i…
Why “Singing Wells”? News
…good name for our project which aims to preserve, celebrate and share the unique music traditions and heritage of East Africa. More on Kenya’s singing wells BBC World Service video on how the singing wells in the village of Daaba have changed the life of the local community: …
Recording music & dance of the Batwa News
…irunga mountains, when everything changed for the Ugandan Bawta. Unable to live and hunt in the forest, the Batwa were forced to live in areas not suited to their traditional way of life. They became largely excluded from Ugandan society. Batwa communities suffered from poverty and exclusion and were offered little stake in the tourist industry which has developed in forests where they once lived. The plight of the Batwa in Uganda is now being r…
May 2011 – Jimmy reports back on the pilot phase News
…Ketebul, describes the Singing Wells Mission: “Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music crosses borders have their successes deeply embedded in the music of their ancestors. Southern, Central and Western African nations have their modern music genres deeply rooted in the rhythms, harmonies and melodies of their past resulting in a…
Reflections on the pilot phase by Pato News
…g at a restaurant called Sippers in Hurlinghan, having drinks and enjoying live music by Samba Mapangala, Winyo and Ayub Ogada. Jimmy was not aware that I kept on peeping to see the images my love was capturing. Day 2: Off to Malindi I was up by 5:00am in the morning, and was all showered and packed shortly after.I had breakfast and by 6:30 I was out of the house. Nairobi has serious traffic jams and to get somewhere on time one has to leave early…
Discovering music roots with SWP News
…rrently working on three others simultaneously. Of course the world cannot live in the past and must move on, but there is no future without a past. Countries that have rich music industries and whose music crosses borders have their successes deeply embedded in the music of their ancestors. Southern, Central and Western African nations have their modern music genres deeply rooted in the rhythms, harmonies and melodies of their past resulting in a…
More Ketebul voices…Steve reports from the field News
…s GPS couldn’t help us either. Luckily for us, while we were refueling car number 02 at Watamu, a friend of Pato’s who lives in Malindi just happened to come by the station for fuel too. He took us to Paradise Hotel (which turned out to be a disappointment for all), where we found Tabu and his team had already arrived and were a couple of tuskers down. After unpacking all the equipment and checking in to our respective rooms, Pato ,Winyo, Willie B…
SWP Launch Day News
Today is launch day – the day we go live with the brand new Singing Wells website. And it’s a very exciting prospect, as the project starts in earnest from here. It’s particularly appropriate that we should launch today, as this week Kenya celebrates the 47th anniversary of independence, which was granted on 12th December 1963. And yesterday, I was very honoured to be a guest at a reception for Kenya National Day hosted by the High Commissioner i…