Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

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.