Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://localhost:4000/handle/20.500.12504/56

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Learning of musical instrument- playing among learners with visual impairment in selected primary schools in Kwania district, northern Uganda
(Kyambogo University (Unpublished work), 2024-01) Aciro, Evaline Gloria
This study was about how Teaching facilitates learning of musical instrument- playing among learners with visual impairment in Kwania district, Northern Uganda. The study objectives were; to find out the methods that teachers use when teaching playing of musical instruments among LVIs in selected primary schools in Kwania district, to establish the challenges that teachers and learners face during the teaching of musical instrument-playing among LVIs in selected primary schools in Kwania district and suggest solutions to the challenges that teachers and learners face during the teaching of musical instrument-playing among LVIs in selected primary schools in Kwania district. A phenomenological research design was used to find out answers to the major problems. Interviews, focus group, and documentary review were used. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze data. The study found out that when LVIs are taught to play music instruments, they are empowered to express themselves, to interact with other people and to recognize that they are not totally incapacitated. However, the situation in Kwania, is not yet sufficiently supportive of the LVIs learning of music instrument playing, let alone the general education. The level of teacher skills in engaging LVIs in music instrument playing is still developing, and the facilities were inadequate, UPE schools and established integrated schools lacked most of the required adaptations to enable LVIs access the learning facilities and the general school environment. The study revealed that there is need to train more teachers in special needs education so that at least each regular school has one. Ministry of education and sports should increase on the release sent to Special and UPE schools specifically to cater for LVIs, and Teachers from regular UPE schools has to always tour the established integrated schools in order to learn some lessons concerning teaching methodology of LVIs.
Analysis of the Cultural Meaning of Okulamusa Practice of the Basoga People of Uganda
(Southern African Journal for Folklore Studies, 2025-05-13) Isabirye, James
Prolonged greeting practices of various communities particularly in Africa offer insights about the deeper meaning of social interactions among people in a modern global society where individualism and its attendant challenges to humankind are increasing. This study was about okulamusa, an indigenous greeting practice of the Basoga people of Uganda. Although this heritage embeds deep Basoga sociocultural values, there is barely any scholarly analysis of its meaning to the community and application in a contemporary context. This study aimed at finding out the nature of interactions and relationships that okulamusa engenders, its cultural value, and what could be learnt about and from the engagements in this practice. The study employed phenomenological and auto-ethnographic methods, and involved 22 participants. Data was obtained through observation, interviews, focus group discussions, auto-ethnographic reflection, and analysis of extant YouTube videos and online audio files that were widely publicised. The inquiry revealed that okulamusa is a contextual asking of questions and telling of holistic human experiences, which embed construction of individual and collective identity, and nurturing of a socio-collectivist community spirit, understanding, unity, cohesion, and coexistence in society. These virtues are transmitted in an intergenerational manner as a means of sustaining the community’s ethical and social fabric. The study concluded that okulamusa, just like other similar prolonged greeting cultures, is a central cultural practice that shapes human interactions and relations, which have implications for contemporary social development initiatives.
Community musicking and musical cognition among adungu music communities of the Acholi people from Awach, Gulu district, Northern Uganda
(Research Studies in Music Education, 2024-07-31) Isabirye, James
This ethnographic inquiry investigated the nature of musical cognition that engagements in the Ugandan Acholi people’s adungu music culture engender, what can be understood about musical cognition in nonwesternized oral community music-making experiences, and how this might inform school music education theory and practice. Schooling in Uganda mostly upholds colonial epistemes that separate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, and position the arts and culture at the periphery of school experiences. Through a thematic analysis of data from interviews, focus group discussions, and observations of Anyim Lac troupe music community engagements, this study found that sociomusical experiences engender musical cognition where the musical spirit, mind, body, and environment interactions birth musical understanding. Musical cognition was understood as a holistic process of reflecting, creating, recreating, and acting emotionally where these musical spirit, mind, body, and environment interactions are shaped by culture. Since humans perceive, perform, and learn music as the embodiment of the interaction between musical spirit, mind, body, and environment, educators might need to create contexts where learners engage in learning experiences in ways that embed awareness of the intertwined nature of musical spirit, mind, body, and environment in those meaning-making processes.
Democratising the Theatre for Development (TfD) Space through Balancing Power Dynamics: Analysing Practice-Based Experiences from Uganda
(Routledge, 2024) Banturaki, Keneth
The awareness of power dynamics is fundamental in the implementation of a democratic Theatre for Development (TfD) process. This chapter draws from the author’s practical experiences with TfD practice in Uganda to advocate for effective balancing of the power playing plane. In the first experience, where the author participated as part of the facilitating team of the TfD project aimed at empowering small scale fish farmers, it is argued that if the funders have unrestricted power to dictate the terms of reference for TfD practice, without accommodating the views of the practitioners, it becomes difficult for practitioners to implement a truly democratic process of TfD. In another experience, in Eastern Uganda where the author participated as an invited research observer, it is observed that when the performances of power between the practitioners and the funding bodies are effectively negotiated, the TfD process, depending on the skill and ingenuity of the practitioner yields effective engagement and empowerment. The chapter urges that practitioners should always strive to establish a horizontal plane of working, in dealing with both funders and the communities with which they work. This requires practitioners to assess the impact of their actions, always negotiating and moderating the performance of power in the process.
Namadu drum music and dance as mediation of healing rituals among the Bagwere people of Uganda
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2021-03) James, Isabirye
This article reports on a study that investigated the Namadu healing ritual of the Bagwere people of Uganda. The ritual involves drumming, singing and dancing, as well as sacrificing chicks, birds and animals towards gaining spiritual, emotional and physical healing of afflicted clan members. This music and dance mediated ritual is no longer commonly performed in African indigenous communities, and has not previously received scholarly attention. The current study sought to find out the deeper meaning of this indigenous heritage; what modern society could learn from it; and its viability in a contemporary context. Ethnographic data was obtained through observation, interviews, focus group discussions, and analysis of extant videos and photographs. The findings revealed that the Namadu ritual embeds cultural identity, and increases agency in communities. Further, the music and dance have been re-invented into a royal and social entertainment, and a cultural festival for the Bagwere Cultural Union (BCU) and communities, respectively.
Thinking about sustainability in Theatre for Development projects : my experience of how the politics of funding shapes TfD practice
(Taylor & Francis, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 2021-12-07) Bamuturaki, Keneth
This article examines the complexity of embedding the element of sustainability to foster successful TfD practice. I recount my own experience as a TfD practitioner in western Uganda, where, in spite of my effort to execute a sustainable TfD project, I was let down by insufficiency of funds resulting from the high handedness of the funders of my project. I argue that in order to implement a successful TfD project, there should be shared action and understanding between the practitioner and the development funders on issues pertaining to the ethics of practice and the extent of the resources needed.
Experimenting with child empowerment through Theatre for Development (TfD) in Uganda: my experience with a child rights TfD project in Gganda-Wakiso
(Consciousness, Literature and the Arts., 2018-04-01) Bamuturaki, Keneth
The Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees the child’s freedom of expression, thought and association. It upholds child’s freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kind, regardless of frontier, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art or through any media of the child’s choice. These freedoms also uphold the child’s right to express an opinion and be heard and relates closely to children working and sharing ideas in groups. In Uganda, there have been attempts by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) such as Raising Voices, Acting for Africa and Restless Development to involve children in child rights issues but their model has largely focused on having children to participate in the NGOs’ projects rather than empowering them to design and participate in their own projects. Furthermore, as Paul Moclair would put it, ‘while Ugandan NGOs have convincing reasons for promoting children’s participation, their goals of participation are primarily designed for the consumption of the donors whose perceptions of development remain dominated by products rather than processes’(Moclair 2009). The school environment in Uganda could offer opportunities to foster child empowerment since children spend most of their time at school. However, this is hampered by authoritarian power relations between the teachers and the learners and a learning model where children are treated as empty pinchers waiting to be filled with knowledge. In this article I analyse using my practical experience with a Child Rights TfD project in a school community in Gganda Wakiso, Central Uganda how TfD can be used to empower children in analysing issues affecting their lives. The article argues that if children are facilitated to participate in making theatre focusing about their needs, they are given opportunity to learn, reflect and express their voice on issues which affect their lives. In short, they engage in an empowering and transformative process.
Namadu drum music and dance as mediation of healing rituals among the Bagwere people of Uganda
(Taylor& FrancisOnline: Journal of Music Research in Africa., 2021-03-18) Isabirye, James
This article reports on a study that investigated the namadu healing ritual of the Bagwere people of Uganda. The ritual involves drumming, singing and dancing, as well as sacrificing chicks, birds and animals towards gaining spiritual, emotional and physical healing of afflicted clan members. This music and dance mediated ritual is no longer commonly performed in African indigenous communities, and has not previously received scholarly attention. The current study sought to find out the deeper meaning of this indigenous heritage; what modern society could learn from it; and its viability in a contemporary context. Ethnographic data was obtained through observation, interviews, focus group discussions, and analysis of extant videos and photographs. The findings revealed that the namadu ritual embeds cultural identity, and increases agency in communities. Further, the music and dance have been re-invented into a royal and social entertainment, and a cultural festival for the Bagwere Cultural Union (BCU) and communities, respectively.
Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts : nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion
(Research Studies in Music Education., 2021-02-20) Isabirye, James
I studied the revival project that involved teaching and (re)learning of a nearly extinct music tradition of the Basoga people from Uganda, to find out what might be learnt about and from those learning processes, and insights that might be applicable in formal educational settings. The revival project activities were documented (with participants’ permission) and publicized through a large number of audio and audiovisual recordings, photographs, and reports from community and school settings. Treating this documentation as extant data, I engaged in a qualitative analysis of the social and musical interactions between and among the two surviving master musicians and the youths to understand the nature and meaning of these learning experiences. Emergent themes reflected that nurturing identity, agency, and joy-filled passion among the learners were the main contributing factors that facilitated a successful transfer of knowledge and skills from the elderly master musicians to multitudes of youths.
Can indigenous music learning processes inform contemporary schooling
(International Journal of Music Education, 2021-02-24) Isabirye, James
This autoethnographic study investigated possibility of incorporating indigenous pedagogies into Ugandan school music and, possibly, general education. School music education in Uganda currently occurs within a colonial-influenced system that does not connect with learners’ indigenous cultures. The colonial system fosters belief that “western” is modernity and “indigenous” is backwardness that should be erased. School music learning is currently experienced in a teacher-dominated, “banking” (Freire, 1970) school system that disempowers learners and produces graduates who cannot address the musical needs of their worlds. Ugandan government measures to improve music and general education have not improved the situation. Literature on the role that indigenous pedagogies could play in a contemporary music education is limited. Through this study, I sought to understand what might happen when indigenous education pedagogies are incorporated in a contemporary, formal school setting. Informed by relevant literature, I interrogated and analyzed my own learning and teaching experiences in Ugandan communities and schools and found that embedding indigenous learning and teaching processes in music classrooms fostered growth in learner leadership, ownership, agency, and identity in the context of mutually shared participatory experiences that learners found relevant and meaningful—experiences that engendered joyful, passionate, collaborative learning, and reification of reflective practice among learners.

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