Journal Articles

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

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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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