Uganda, Republic of.

Country in east-central Africa. Situated on the northern shores of Lake Victoria (Nyanja), it has an area of 241, 038 km² (including 43, 938 km² of water). Its population, numbering approximately 22·21 million (2000 estimate), is ethnically diverse, composed of over 30 individual societies distinguished by history, language, geographic location and social and political structures (see fig.1). The many, varied musical traditions that result from this diversity serve as identity markers themselves.

I. Introduction

II. Music areas

III. Buganda

IV. Modern developments

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PETER COOKE

Uganda

I. Introduction

1. Languages and ethnic groups.

The Ganda, Masaba (or Gisu), Gwere, Hima and Iru, Hutu, Kenyi, Kiga (Chiga), Konzo (Konjo), Kooki, Nyala, Nyambo, Nyole, Nyoro, Ruli, Sese and Tooro are Bantu-speaking groups who live south of a boundary formed by Lake Albert, the Victoria Nile and lakes Kyoga and Salisbury. Groups speaking River-Lake Nilotic languages live in north-central Uganda to the north of this boundary, which forms part of what is sometimes called the ‘Bantu line’; they include the Acholi, Alur, Labwor and Lango. Another related group, the Padhola, live in a small area in south-eastern Uganda. In the north and east, speakers of Plains Nilotic languages include the Karamojong (Karimojoŋ) and the Teso; in the north-west there are a few groups, including the Madi, that belong to the Moru-Madi division of central Sudanic languages, as well as a few representatives of the Plains Nilotes. In the extreme west of Uganda live a few small groups of ‘pygmy’ peoples: in the mountain rain-forests near the borders with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the former Zaïre) live numerous bands of Twa. A few groups of Mbuti ‘pygmies’ inhabit the forest around the Semliki river along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (For a discussion of their music see Rwanda and Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.)

Since language and speech are important determinants of a music tradition, specific music traditions can be identified with specific ethnic groups and their languages. In addition it is also possible to identify particular music traditions visually, through the instruments and various aspects of the dance (costumes, formations and movements). Because it was formerly one of the largest and most powerful kingdom states of east-central Africa and because its rich and varied music traditions have been researched more fully than those of neighbouring peoples, the part of Uganda previously called Buganda is treated separately (see §II below).

2. History and research.

Oral traditions of the historic kingdoms of Uganda mention drums in association with chiefly power and patronage, and at the tombs of past rulers personal drums are preserved among the regalia. Specific songs associated with important events are also mentioned in clan traditions. The xylophone associated with Kyabaggu (king of Buganda during the mid-18th century) is still preserved at a rural shrine, along with the remains of the entamiivu drums that accompanied it. Rock gongs discovered in several locations in Uganda, often in association with rock shelters and rock paintings, are probably of much greater age. Written accounts of musical activity began with the diaries of European explorers such as J.H. Speke and Emin Pascha in the mid-19th century and report mostly on musical life at the court of the Ganda king. Subsequently, explorers, missionaries, anthropologists (such as J. Roscoe) and administrators (e.g. Sir Harry Johnston) have added to this history. Some cylinder recordings made by Johnston survive from the early years of the 20th century. By the 1920s HMV was producing records throughout East Africa, and from the early 1930s numerous Ugandan recordings (including some Christianized church music) were made by Odeon and later by EMI (c1937).

Joseph Kyagambiddwa was the first Ugandan to publish staff notations and analyses of Ganda music at the same time as Klaus Wachsmann was completing his important survey of instruments throughout the country in his role as curator of the Uganda Museum (Trowell and Wachsmann, 1953) and was also recording extensively on disc. Copies of Wachsmann's recordings are stored at the Uganda Museum and at the National Sound Archive in London. Both Radio Uganda and the National Theatre in Kampala have preserved some of their recordings, but as yet Uganda has no national sound archives.

There was a considerable growth in research done mostly by visiting scholars during the 1960s (notably Anderson, Kubik, Cooke, Gourlay and Van Thiel). This work was further stimulated by research seminars given by John Blacking at Makerere University (Kampala) during 1965 and 1966. The troubled years of the 1970s and early 1980s effectively halted any serious research by foreign scholars within Uganda and also hampered the development of any local research base, though aspects of traditional music are studied and taught (mainly as performance) in the Department of Music, Dance and Drama at Makerere University and at the music department of the Institute for Teacher Education (Kyambogo). An exception is James Makubuya who completed his ethnomusicology training in the USA in 1995, writing a detailed study of the role and significance of the kiganda endongo (bowl lyres of the Ganda people) and later beginning a study of the nindingidi (tube fiddle). Since 1987 a few foreign scholars have returned to continue research in southern Uganda with P.R. Cooke exploring the fate of the former court music of Buganda as well as surveying the development of mixed instrument ensembles in Busoga, C.T. Gray examining the textual content of bowl lyre songs and researching the creation of vernacular music for use in the Catholic Church, and A. Cooke, Micklem and Stone researching xylophone styles in eastern Uganda.

Uganda

II. Music areas

Despite the ethnic diversity of Uganda, five principal music areas can be identified if one surveys general features of musical style (especially rhythm and tempo), together with language, dance styles and preferred instrument combinations. These areas are: (1) pastoralist music of north-eastern Uganda; (2) Nilotic music of northern Uganda; (3) music of the Sudanic language group (Madi, Lugbara and Kakwa) in north-western Uganda; (4) Bantu music of central and eastern Uganda; (5) music of the western kingdoms of Tooro, Bunyoro and Nkore, including Kigezi. Rhythmic and tempo differences are clearly evident in the most representative dances of each region.

1. Pastoralist music of north-eastern Uganda.

Formerly called Nilo-Hamites or Plains Nilotes, these people include the Karamojong, Jie, Pokot (Pökoot), Tepeth (So) and Teso. With the exception of the Teso, these peoples make little use of musical instruments, except for the occasional animal-horn trumpet used to heighten excitement in dances and temporary flutes made often from lobelia stalks for solo diversion. Singing styles are characterized by leisurely and long choral refrains, the use of vocal cueing among the Karamojong to permit democratic participation through change of soloist (Gourlay, 1972), the slow timed claps of the chorus and the foot-stamps of high-leaping dancers in the edonga dance. Ox-songs expressing praise and love for cattle are a principal theme in men's singing, whether for a beer party or for edonga. Interestingly, there are similarities with the music of the pastoralist Hima living among settled Bantu-speaking Iru and Hutu in the plains of Nkore and Bunyoro in western Uganda, notably the relatively leisurely style of performance and the comparative absence of instruments. However, a distinctive feature of Hima singing, the frequent use of melisma, is absent in the singing of the Plains Nilotes.

2. Nilotic music of northern Uganda.

Among both the Nilotic north and the Bantu south one finds a wide range of instruments used in village music-making. Clear differences in size, design and playing techniques of the harps, lyres, flutes, trumpets and drums can be noticed. Musical rhythm is also a major distinguishing factor. The syllabic rhythm of Nilotic languages (with their high proportion of short syllables) lends itself readily to a rhythmic base in duple time.

A children's song from Iceme, Lango, ex.1, illustrates the typical rhythms of Nilotic song accompanied by a regular clapped pulse. Communal singing among the Acooli (Acholi) shows a high degree of overlap between soloist and chorus leading to polyphony. In Acooli, Lango and as far east as Labwor, young men make use of three sizes of lamellophones known as lukeme (Acooli) or okeme (Lango) in large ensembles of as many as 15 or 20 players to accompany their choral songs. The most important dance of the Acooli is the Bwola ceremonial dance. Crouching and leaping characterizes the movements of men who carry small drums when dancing the Bwola, while women make much use of shoulder and arm movement. The dingi dingi girls' dance, the orak and laracaraca are other dances performed by young people.

Conspicuous among the musical genres of the Nilotic Alur are large ensembles of long side-blown wooden trumpets played in hocket style by men and youths for their agwara communal circular dances. Similar hocketing ensembles employing sets of smaller trumpets known as tuum used to be known in Acholi but may now no longer be played. In the last 20 years of the 20th century the adungu (arched-harp) of the Alur became widely popular throughout Uganda and is now played in several different sizes with the largest being up to 2 m in overall length.

3. Music of the Sudanic language group in north-western Uganda.

The music of this language group (Ma’di, Lugbara and Kakwa) has been little researched. While the music sounds rhythmically similar to that of their Nilotic neighbours, no rigorous comparisons have been made. Popular communal dances include the osegu stopped-flute ensembles of the Madi, which are similar in their use of hocket to the trumpet ensembles of the Alur. During the course of the performance a rich texture is produced by the increasing use of harmonic equivalents, so that the ‘melody’ begins to sound like a chordal ostinato. Ex.2, an osegu song from Ma’di-Okollo, illustrates some of these features. Madi men perform a genre of song accompanied by technically simple but rhythmically complex playing of the odi lyre, and it is organized metrically in long cycles of as many as five or six utterances for each cycle that can span up to 60 or 72 minimal units.

The music of the Kakwa, a small group of Bari-speaking peoples living in the extreme north-western corner of Uganda, differs greatly from that of any of its Ugandan neighbours in its melodic features. Downward pitch glides are so common in their songs (possibly related to the phonological structure of the texts) that it is difficult for outsiders to perceive distinct pitches. However, their long single-headed drums, used in accompanying lorojo, bayito and mute song genres in family rites such as funerals and heir-naming, are carefully tuned to contrasting pitches.

4. Bantu music of central and eastern Uganda.

Four groups considered here are the Ganda and the Soga, who live around the northern shores of Lake Victoria, and, separated from these, the Masaba (Masabe, Lugisu or Gishu) who inhabit the slopes of Mount Elgon on Uganda's eastern border, and the Konjo (or Konzo) who live in a similar habitat in the Ruwenzori mountain range on Uganda's western border. The Konjo and Masaba may have been the earliest inhabitants of the interlacustrine area, displaced to their highland fastnesses by immigrant peoples.

The syllabic rhythms of Bantu speech, resulting from the particular mixture of long and short syllables, is closely preserved in song, and the mora (the tone-bearing unit of length) plays a key role in shaping these rhythms (long syllables consist of two morae). Text rhythms are commonly underlaid with musical rhythms based on drummed triplets. Ex.3a illustrates this relationship. In the case of most typical songs of the Soga, Konjo and Masaba every third unit is marked by clapping, rattles or legbells. In Buganda, however, this is converted to a slower principal beat (marked by a low-pitched drum and clapping, commonly with six divisions of the beat (ex.3b). The Konzo and Masaba use pitch systems that are not pentatonic as in the rest of Uganda, but heptatonic and hexatonic respectively.

Busoga, a region that frequently suffered in past centuries from the raids of both Ganda and Nyoro, has a wide range of instruments, possibly as a result of ethnic mixing. These include xylophones (used only by the Alur and Adhola among the Nilotic peoples); sets of panpipes (of three different sizes) used increasingly since the 1960s; tube fiddles; notched four-holed flutes; several sizes of lamellophones; rattles, other concussion instruments and drums. Some troupes of Soga semi-professional musicians use all of these instruments in their ensembles.

Polyrhythmic interlocking is an essential feature of panpipe playing, and it resembles the interlocking techiques of xylophone playing throughout southern Uganda. Lamellophones, not adopted by the more conservative Ganda, were readily adopted by the Soga from their Nilotic neighbours in the north and have become increasingly popular since the 1920s. An ensemble of three different sizes played with a flute are a favourite combination for beer-party music. Several styles of log xylophone playing are found in Busoga: those in the northern part of the region seem to have been influenced rhythmically by Nilotic musical style while those in the south are more like the amadinda style of the Ganda. In Busoga villages as many as six persons play on one instrument often built over a pit, which enhances the lower frequencies of the bass keys. Dance gestures of both the Ganda and Soga focus on virtuosic pelvic rotation with the arms carried in a variety of statuesque positions at or near shoulder level.

5. Music of the western kingdoms of Tooro, Bunyoro and Nkore, including Kigezi.

Though closely related linguistically to the Ganda, the musical styles of the neighbouring kingdoms of Bunyoro and Tooro show a Nilotic influence that clearly parallels the degree of penetration into western Uganda by the Bito clans from the Nilotic north. At some point in the late 16th or the 17th century these invaders established a ruling hegemony, replacing the legendary Cwezi dynasty of the old kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara. Unlike the Bantu-speaking groups discussed in the previous section, duple metre rhythms similar to those in Nilotic music are used to accompany songs and dances. As a result, syllables of two morae are frequently compressed, and conversely short syllables are lengthened to fit the underlying metrical framework of the music. Accompanying rhythms are exemplified with rattles strapped around the lower-legs of dancers, sounding intricate rhythmic patterns against the crisp sounds of the short, single-headed, hand-beaten ntimbo drums for the popular orunyege dance style common to both Tooro and Bunyoro.

Further south in the former kingdom of Nkore, where pastoralist Hima people have moved into an area populated by Iru agriculturalists, the pastoralist influence seems to have produced slower and gentler tempos. The two principal dance genres, the men's ekitaaguriro and the women's ekizino dances of the Iru majority, call for a lightly beaten, continuous pulsation of sounds produced by raft-rattles, large water pots (tapped on their mouths with flat beaters made from banana fibre) or small drums. The pulsation is grouped into repeated patterns of eight beats that are accented variously. Male choral responses at the beginning of their ekitaaguriro dance take the form of prolonged low humming that imitates the lowing of cattle. The dance gestures of the men are marked by raised arms that symbolize the slowly waving long horns of their Nkore cattle, while their feet tap out polyrhythmic patterns. The more powerful and aristocratic Hima became the rulers of the kingdom and many of their cults and song texts are associated with cattle. Poorer Hima earn their living as herders and often live in temporary grass huts within pastures. The Hima entooro men's dance also consists of gentle arm-waving gestures, but it is performed while seated. While the Hima adopted the Bantu language of the Iru, Hima singing style (often admired and sometimes imitated by non-Hima) is extremely melismatic and thus quite distinct from Iru singing.

In 1993 the people of Nkore, unlike the Nyoro and Tooro, voted against the restoration of the kingship to the Hima royal family. Former musical institutions of the palace are likely to vanish, but the playing of one of the ensembles, the esheegu stopped-flutes, was not confined solely to the court and is still practised by a few teams of men in western Nkore. In the mountainous south-western corner of the country the Kiga, whose culture resembles that of the Iru in Nkore, shows less northern influence in their singing styles. Syllable timings in song are more like those of the Bantu peoples discussed above in §(4), but as in Nkore, Bunyoro and Tooro the accompanying rhythms are based on a duple division (see ex.3c).

This survey covers the more important and distinctive music styles in Uganda, but is necessarily incomplete. Table 1 lists many of the principal song-dance genres of most of the ethnic groups in Uganda, as well as the distribution of certain instruments and ensembles (for obvious reasons drums and most idiophones are not included). The information on instruments is based on Wachsmann's survey (Trowell and Wachsmann, 1953), and it must be noted that since the time of that survey some instruments have been adopted by other ethnic groups partly as a result of national education and cultural policies (see §IV below).

Uganda

III. Buganda

The kingdom of Buganda, on the northern shore of Lake Victoria and to the west of the Nile, was settled at an early date by independent clans of unknown origin. Other clans arrived later to form one nation, a conglomerate of 38 clans under the rule of the kabaka (king). Much of Buganda's musical history is embedded in the oral traditions that record the contributions of the clans to the musical life of the nation. The kingship was interrupted with the coup of 1966 when Muteesa II fled into exile, later dying in London. When the monarchy was reintroduced and Muteesa's heir, Ronald Mutebi (b 1955), was installed as 36th kabaka in 1993, the royal mujaguzo drums were sounded again at his coronation, but in the intervening years many of the former palace musicians had become very old or had died. A ‘cultural village’ has been created adjacent to one of the royal residences, where such traditional musical ensembles as are discussed below might flourish again, but too short a time has elapsed to assess the chances for success of such a revival.

1. Instruments.

Instrumentalists at the court are under the charge of two hereditary chieftainships, Kawuula and Kimomomera, whose main concern is the royal drums. Next to the royal drummers, the trumpeters were the most conspicuous. They took turns (ebisanja) to serve at the palace for periods of four to six weeks in the year. The amakondeere (trumpets) are made of bottle-shaped gourds and are side-blown. They form an ensemble of at least five instruments played in hocket, each instrument being named according to its position within the pentatonic system to which the set is tuned.

The trumpeters lived on the kabaka's land; a settlement of trumpeters was known as the ekyalo ky 'abakondeere (‘trumpeters' village’). It is believed that the amakondeere came from the east because of their association with the Mmamba (Lungfish) clan, who claimed to have come west across Lake Victoria. Another trumpet set, amagwara, was obtained from one of the neighbouring Bunyoro counties conquered in the 19th century. It was played at the palace on rare occasions and is an example of the accretion of a musical style in the wake of conquest. Certain important chiefs in the past were entitled to trumpet music at their homes. Few members of the former trumpet bands appear to have survived the interregnum period.

The same is true of the former players of the kabaka's ekibiina ky'abalere, a set of five or six notched flutes (endere) played with a quartet of drums (see fig. 2 below). Although it was less prestigious than the trumpet-sets, it still constituted a court ensemble. The akadinda, a large xylophone with up to 22 free keys (see Xylophone, fig.5), was the exclusive instrument of the kabaka. While few specimens are extant, the two villages from which the king's akadinda players were recruited continued to maintain and teach the royal repertory throughout the interregnum. The amadinda or entaala, a xylophone with 12 free keys, was widely played in the homes of important and well-to-do Ganda, and its popularity in school music programmes ensured the continuity of this tradition. As in the case of the akadinda, in the 1990s the previous kabaka's amadinda players and younger kinsmen still practised the repertory in their villages.

The entenga (drum-chime) rose to great social heights within two centuries. First played as a spectacle for country people, later providing entertainment for the priest of an influential spirit cult, it eventually found favour with a kabaka. It became part of the court ensemble to which several refinements were added, and was held in great esteem. When a kabaka wished to favour a chief publicly, he sent entenga to play for him. From the 1950s entenga were made and played at one of the country’s leading high schools, a sure sign that, as regalia, the drum-chime did not rank as highly as certain royal drums.

The music of the court is inseparable from the music of the Ganda people. An example of this may be seen in the role of the omulanga (harpist) who, besides satisfying the musical aspirations of all the community, also held a privileged position at court; he was the only performer who played in the quarters of the king's wives, and his relationship with his lord was as close as that of David and King Saul. Since the beginning of the 20th century there have been few harpists, a mere handful in a nation of some two million people.

Consort music is so important in Buganda that even eng'ombe, the individually made and owned animal-horn trumpets of the hunters, are often sounded together. Like the amakondeere and amagwara, the eng'ombe are side-blown; each has a small hole in the tip which when stopped yields a grace note less than a minor 3rd below the open note, an interval of critical importance in the speech of the Ganda. Unlike the trumpets used in proper sets, eng'ombe are not tuned in relation to each other. Because the hunters rely on horn-calls for coordinating the practical and ritual steps necessary for a successful hunt, the calls tend to follow in fixed sequences; in this sense the horns perform in consort and their sounds acquire ‘musical’ coherence.

In the 18th century Buganda turned its attention to the east bank of the Nile, which resulted in an influx of music from Busoga. A striking example of such borrowing against a background of political supremacy occurred in the second half of the 19th century, when the ntongooli (bowl lyre) of Busoga first attracted attention at the kabaka's court – where, initially, ntongooli players were a distinct group of Soga entertainers – and in time became a popular favourite under the name endongo. Despite their whole-hearted adoption of the instrument, the Ganda still apply the epithet eya Soga (‘of the Soga’) to the endongo. When harp playing became an esoteric art in Buganda, the bowl lyre predominated because it was free from the ties of tradition and in no way diminished the prestige of the harp.

From the beginning of the 20th century migratory labourers have come from abroad in large numbers, bringing their music with them. The most important instrument introduced in this migration, the box-resonated lamellophone, reached Buganda in two different forms, one from Rwanda and Burundi in the south-west and the other from the Alur in the far north-west, by way of Busoga. Labourers from the south-west also brought the gourd bow with tuning-noose, but it has not become established. Although the lamellophone is popular in Buganda, it is rarely played by the Ganda themselves but by immigrants who constitute half the population of some villages.

In 1906–7, a young musician, Eriya Kafero of Mityana, created the endingidi, a single-string tube fiddle that is the only Ganda bowed instrument. The invention was probably inspired by both the indigenous sekitulege (ground bow), a child's string instrument, and the foreign rebab, which was played by Arab travellers from the east coast of Africa introducing to Kafero the technique of bowing. Circumstances favoured the endingidi; like the bowl lyre, it was free from traditional ties and was used to accompany topical poetry. With the endongo it is still favoured by wedding musicians.

Social occasions are often marked by the use of a particular instrument or ensemble. Thus traditional wrestling matches require drumming on the engalabi, a tall, single-headed drum with an exterior profile reminiscent of an ancient cannon (fig.2). The monitor lizard-skin head, struck with bare hands, gives a crisp note. Spectators participate with long choral ostinatos at a remarkably slow tempo for Ganda music. The engalabi is also indispensable to the funeral rites during the stage at which the clan elders appoint a successor to the deceased; to attend the ceremony is okugenda mu ngalabi (‘to go where the ngalabi is’). This drum was of minor importance at the palace compared with the embuutu, a kettledrum with a wooden shell either in the form of an egg truncated at both ends (fig.3) or in a combined cylindrical and conical form, with a sharply angled profile where the lower conical section meets the upper cylindrical section.

Music for the baakisimba, the best-known Ganda traditional dance, at one time required a trio of two embuutu and an engalabi (figs.2–3), but during the 1980s extra embuutu drums were included in the ensemble as a drumming style from the Kooki tribe in south-western Buganda became popular among the semi-professional groups of drummers and dancers. Wedding feasts call for an ensemble in which the embuutu plays a major part. The ensemble, embaga, literally ‘the wedding feast’, consists of a bowl lyre, one or two spike tube bowed lutes, one or two notched flutes and an embuutu. The embuutu is also used for drumming emizira (clan slogans), phrases that name a clan ancestor or hero and recall important events in that clan's history.

Drum names can be confusing. For instance, musicians usually call certain embuutu drums baakisimba because of the role they play in that dance. A drum may have a proper name as if it were a person (virtually the rule for drums in the palace); others have names derived from their use at certain functions or their part in a certain ensemble; alternatively, they may be called by a generic term that identifies them by type. The word eng'oma (Ngoma) means ‘drum’, ‘feast’ or ‘dance’ in Ganda, as in many other Bantu languages.

2. Form.

The solo-chorus or antiphonal form, ubiquitous in Africa, is also practised in Buganda. Choral responses are disciplined and at times accompanied by hand-clapping. Instrumental music in several parts predominates, and the successive entry of parts is characteristic. Parts interlock like fingers of folded hands, and the only interval that is struck simultaneously is the octave. These features have been studied extensively in xylophone music, which is especially rewarding because it also demonstrates practices such as octave transposition and the existence of the miko, a modal system. Data on miko were first published by Kyagambiddwa (1955) and later studied by Lois Anderson (1968).

Luganda is a tonal language, and musicians claim that the tonal and accentual profile of the language determines the shape of the chanting. However, it is the poetry of the song texts that is of supreme importance; listeners attend to the words rather than to any other feature. In this sense it is justifiable to speak of parameters other than poetry as accompaniment. The text line is the unit of the song, each line usually of four and a half to five seconds' duration. People refer to a particular song by its opening line or lines, many of which are familiar to most Ganda. The performer's task consists of elaborating on the imagery in those lines; he executes his elaborations on different tonal frames, rather like vocal registers, thus producing complex and formal musical and poetic schemes. The manner in which these changes are applied can make the difference between an inspired and a pedestrian performance.

Poetic creation and the use of different tone levels is essentially improvisatory; the singer may use many stock phrases and exclamations to achieve continuity and to mark climaxes. The improvisation of a performer may be repeated on another occasion and eventually become a song in its own right. The various aspects of improvisation, especially those that lead to the creation of a new song, are termed ekisoko, a concept difficult to translate into a Western language. Ganda historians record the political and social circumstances out of which an ekisoko has sprung, even though it be centuries ago, and quote the model for the new ekisoko.

Patterns of accompaniment are likely to be rigidly fixed. It is impossible to say how conservative these patterns are and for how long they have remained intact; however, one has been recorded as having remained stable for over 25 years, and this single case may well be representative of most music in Buganda and may be valid for a much longer period. The music lends itself to notation in 3/8 or 6/8, but Kyagambiddwa has also published several transcriptions in 5/8. He believed that heroic songs of the past were sung in 4/4, a pattern he called biggu (‘witch-doctor's rattles’). The melodies are pentatonic, probably of the pen-equidistant variety, which tends to adapt to Western diatonic tuning. A study of xylophone and harp tuning processes provides an insight into the tunings themselves (Wachsmann, 1967; Cooke, 1992).

Uganda

IV. Modern developments

Western music continues to have an influence on Uganda's music. From the 1950s ‘Sunday’ composers, untrained in Western composition, turned mainly to choral music. The first commissioned composition was probably Mbabi-Katana's Te Deum for the ceremony at the High Court in Kampala on the occasion of Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Kyagambiddwa's Uganda Martyrs African Oratorio (1964) was recorded and widely performed in Europe. His technique is characterized by detailed vocal scoring, which closely follows the profile of the text in the traditional manner, with written instructions naming the particular dance style in which drummers might improvise an accompaniment for the chorus in each movement. Like Kyagambiddwa (1928–78), the Munyankore composer Benedicto Mubangizi (1926–95) frequently composed in his own vernacular, closely emulating at times the traditional singing style of his people and occasionally using traditional rhythmic accompaniments. His output was large and included six masses and 265 anthems and hymns. His hymnbook compilation Mweshongorere Mukama (Let us Praise the Lord) contained many of his own compositions and has become popular in Catholic churches throughout the diocese of Western Uganda. Within the Protestant Church of Uganda composers have tended to create vernacular compositions with SATB homophony similar to English models (Gray, 1995).

The late Ahmed Oduka, director of the Uganda Police Band, created a repertory with tunes based on traditional melodic patterns and wrote out the score for band instruments as he had been taught at the Royal Military School of Music, London (Kneller Hall). Like Kyagambiddwa, he added drummers on ad hoc local drums, without scoring their parts.

In Kampala, the capital, and in the few other provincial towns, nightclubs, bars and local radio stations disseminate imported musical entertainment and the somewhat Westernized popular music of local groups. While Congolese and Swahili songs and styles based on West African and Latin American genres are popular, groups such as Jimmy Katumba with the Ebonies and the Afrigos Band (both popular during the 1980s and early 1990s) also perform in local vernacular languages, and in some cases the influence of Western church homophony is clearly evident. One of the most popular genres of the mid-1990s was kadongo kamu, originally inspired by American country music; it involved one singer with a steel-string guitar performing very much in the tradition of the itinerant rural musician. Humorous, topical and subversive commentary (especially during the period of army rule) were important characteristics in these acts. While the guitar accompaniments were rudimentary, using simple triadic Western harmonies, indigenous rhythms such as the baakisimba dance pattern were also integrated. Later, kadongo kamu moved into popular theatres and was enlarged to accommodate other instrumentalists (e.g. electric and bass guitars) and dancers, but it lost none of its political and social content.

Popular theatre involving much song and dance burgeoned through the 1990s, drawing on both the expertise of graduates from Makerere University's School of Music, Dance and Drama and the musical skills of popular musicians. Topical new songs and Western ‘hits’ are juxtaposed with modernized action songs, traditional dances, court music and ritual to build plots advanced mainly by improvised dialogue. Numerous theatre venues have appeared in Kampala and its suburbs, where semi-professional companies often play to packed houses. Some of the urban Muslim population have developed an interest in taarab music from the Swahili coast and several taarab bands were formed during the 1990s, modelling their playing on imported recordings.

During the period of strife, Western religion was perceived by many rural Ugandans to have failed them, and this perception, combined with a breakdown in the national health infrastructure, corresponded to a rise in importance of traditional healers who combine their medicinal work with ancestor worship and spirit appeasement through the use of mediums and various types of trance. Music and dance are vital ingredients in these activities. Moreover, since traditional culture and traditional belief go hand in hand, the leaders of such cult groups (e.g. the Cwezi ancestor cult in Bunyoro and the corresponding Swezi cult in Busoga) regard themselves as guardians of traditional culture and extend patronage to local amateur groups specializing in traditional songs and dances. The cults are well-organized on a national basis; the Ugandan Traditional Healers and Cultural Association serves as a central organization.

An official policy aimed at recognizing the special potential of women in national development has led to the formation of innumerable women's clubs and self-help groups throughout rural Uganda. Singing and dancing often occupy a central place in their activities and in their songs (whether traditional or newly composed), which disseminate the latest ideas on good husbandry, hygiene, child care and other matters considered essential to development.

The ministries responsible for culture, education and agriculture view performance of traditional music and dance as a means of furthering their work. Accordingly, they organize regular district and national music festivals. While new songs are produced in abundance, the performance of traditional repertories clearly illustrates the process of a transference of function. Music and dance that formerly played an essential role in work, ritual, ceremonial and social events in village life are increasingly performed as ‘consati’ (concert programmes) or as theatre. The ‘theatre’ may often be no more than the compound of a homestead or a temporary open space in front of a new dispensary, village school or local government offices.

The numerous rural amateur troupes throughout the regions rehearse programmes that feature not only their local traditional instrumental styles and dances but occasionally also stereotypes of popular dances and musical genres from other regions of Uganda. Some of these groups model their programmes on those of the former National Ensemble (Heatbeat of Africa), which, though based at the National Theatre in Kampala during the 1960s and 70s, used a large cast of performers drawn from various regions in order to create ethnically varied and attractive programmes and to express the concept of a harmonious multi-ethnic society. These efforts, combined with the widespread encouragement of traditional instrument playing in schools, lead sometimes to a varied instrumentarium where harps, zithers, panpipes and xylophones are added to what were once smaller ensembles.

Since around 1970 the adungu harps of the Alur have also been adopted as ensemble instruments in many areas of Uganda. They are made in three or four different sizes, tuned heptatonically, and are used frequently like guitars to produce simple triadic harmonies for accompanying traditional and modern songs and hymns. Everisto Muyinda (d 1992) was the chief inspiration for the concept of mixed ensembles; he became a key figure in the musical life of the country during his varied career as a palace musician, a research assistant in a government-sponsored survey of music in Uganda, a chief musician in the widely travelled National Ensemble (where he was credited with inventing the ‘Kiganda orchestra’), a demonstrator in the music gallery of the Uganda Museum and an instructor in traditional music at several large secondary schools. His younger colleague, Albert Ssempeke, like Muyinda a singer and performer of many instruments, also obtained initial training from the kabaka's musicians and has taken up Muyinda's mantle in his efforts to promote traditional Ganda music. Both men have been teachers and mentors of many Westerners who have studied music in Uganda.

Uganda

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