Music in East Africa. Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture

These captivating case studies include eyewitness accounts of performances, interviews with performers, and vivid illustrations. Each volume is packaged with a 70-minute CD that contains representative examples of the music discussed in the book.

Ngoma is the hallmark of music in East Africa and a performance that incorporates drumming, singing, and dancing. Using several towns and villages as examples, this case study discusses how Ngoma performances function as important means of mediating conflicts, solidifying community and ethnicity, and communicating traditional values and social histories.

CONTENIDO

Foreword
Preface
CD track list (33 tracks)

1. Heating Up!
- East Africa
- Traditional Music Performance: The Example of Ngoma
- What is "Music" in East Africa?
- Greetings
- Conclusion

2. Traditional Performances in two villages and a town
- Introduction
- Case Study 1: Nyanhugi Village, Sukumaland, Tanzania
- Case Study 2: Bugwere Village, Busoga Region, Eastern Uganda
- Case Study 3: Kisumu Town, Western Kenya. Musical transcription
- Gender and traditional music performance in East Africa
Conclusion

3. Fostering Social Cohesion: Competition and Traditional Musical Performance
- Introduction: Competition as social cohesion
- Case Study 1: Bulabo in Sukumaland, Tanzania
- Bufumu
- Bagaalu and Bagiika dance societies
- Samba
- Changes and adaptation in Bulabo
- Case Study 2: Choir competitions in Dar es Salaam
- Vignette 1: The initial evangelical encounter
- Vignette 2: The emergence of tanzanian
- Vignette 3: A postcolonial moment
- Conclusion

4. Individuals in East African Musical Worlds: Gideon Mdegella and Centurio Balikoowa
- Introduction
- Vignette 1: Gideon Mdegella
- Vignette 2: Centurio Balikoowa
- Communities and musical specialist
- Gideon Mdegella: "Mwalimu"
- Centurio Balikoowa
- Conclusion

5. Situating Traditional Music within Modernity
- Introduction
- Vignette: Anthems and Identity
- Case Study 1: Mu Kkubo Ery' Omusaalaba
- Case Study 2: "The roots of Benga"
- D.O. Misiani, the "King" of Benga
- Conclusion: Popular versus traditional - "Modernity Happened"

6. Cooling Down!
- Introduction
- Traditional Music and the Interrelation of the Artsin East Africa

- Glossary
- Resources
- Index