Harnessing community musicians as living archives for “sustainable” teaching and learning of Ugandan musics at Makerere University
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v12i1.2528Keywords:
community-based music knowledge, western music knowledge frameworks, decolonial music education, homogeneous whole, diverse UgandaAbstract
At the Department of Performing Arts and Film at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, there is a growing trend of integrating community musicians into music and dance education through workshops on Ugandan musical traditions. These musicians, who play a vital role in the creation, preservation, and transmission of traditional music, function as living archives within their communities. Drawing on research conducted at Makerere University from 2021 to 2023, this article examines how engaging community musicians as key contributors to teaching and learning Ugandan musics has the potential to decolonise music education in Uganda. In describing the benefits of this inclusive approach, I critique the persistence of elitist frameworks in Ugandan university music and dance departments, which often prioritise engagement with PhD holders and published materials over community-based knowledge. I argue that community musicians, as living archives, offer invaluable insights that can foster the sustainable teaching and learning of Uganda’s diverse musical heritage. Sustainable teaching and learning, as conceptualised in this article, involve educational practices that acknowledge and integrate the contributions of all stakeholders in the production, dissemination, and appreciation of knowledge, thereby ultimately benefiting educational institutions, students, and the communities to which students may return after graduation.
References
Adeogun, Adebowale O. 2021. “Towards Decolonising University Music Education in Nigeria.” Music Education Research 23 (4): 466–483.
Ahikire, Josephine and Anna B. Ninsiima. 2022. “Resilience Amidst Turbulent Waters: Humanities at Makerere in the Era of Neoliberal Orthodoxy.” In Historicising the Humanities at Makerere: Trends, Patterns and Prospects, edited by J. Ahikire, L. Mugumya, E.F. Nabutanyi and P. Atekyereza, 40– 72. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Asaasira, Anita D. 2015. “‘Performing Uganda’: Ndere Troupe’s Representation of a Ugandan Identity.” African Musics in Context: Institutions, Culture, Identity, edited by T. Solomon, 179–209. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. 1998. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. London: Routledge.
Bray, Mark. 1994. “Decolonisation and Education: New Paradigms for the Remnants of the Empire.” Compare 24 (1): 37–51.
Brew, Angela and Jayde Cahir. 2014. “Achieving Sustainability in Learning and Teaching Initiatives.” International Journal for Academic Development 19 (4): 341–352.
Fargion, Janet T. 2012. “Connecting with Communities: Building Sustainable Models for Audiovisual Archiving into the Future.” In Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond, edited S. Nannyonga-Tamusuza and T. Solomon, 49–59. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Fien. 2006. “A Letter from the Future: UNESCO and the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.” Australian Journal of Environmental Education 22 (1): 63–70.
Geitz, Gerry and Jan de Geus. 2019. “Design-based Education, Sustainable Teaching, and Learning.” Cogent Education 6 (1): 1647919.
Kagumba, Andrew K. and Lawrence B. Sekalegga. 2018. “Decolonising Higher Education in Uganda and the Question of Neoliberalism: The Case of Makerere University.” In Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Seminar of the ISME Commission on Music Policy: Culture, Education, and Media, edited by H. Chen, A. De Villers, and A. Kertz-Welzel, 131–143. Ludwig-Maximillians Universitaet.
Kurin, Richard. 2004. “Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in the 2003 UNESCO Convention: A Critical Appraisal.” Museum International 56 (1–2): 66–77.
Lobley, Noel. 2012. “Taking Xhosa Music Out of the Fridge and into the Townships.” Ethnomusicology Forum 21 (2): 181–195.
Mabingo, Alfdaniels. 2019. “‘African Dances are Valid Knowledge’: Dance Teachers’ De/construction of Meanings from Cultural Heritage Dances in Uganda.” Research in Dance Education 20 (3): 311–330.
Mabingo, Alfdaniels. 2020. Ubuntu as Dance Pedagogy in Uganda: Individuality, Community, and Inclusion in Teaching and Learning of Indigenous Dances. London: Springer Nature.
Makwa, Dominic D.B. 2016. “Collaborative Archiving of Music and Dance: Framework for a More Inclusive Postcolonial Archive Among Contemporary Bagisu, Uganda.” PhD diss., Stellenbosch University.
Muller, Carol A. 2002. “Archiving Africanness in Sacred Song.” Ethnomusicology 46 (3): 409–431.
Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia. 2003. “Competitions in School Festivals: A Process of Reinventing Baakisimba Music and Dance of the Baganda (Uganda).” The World of Music, 97–118.
Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia. 2005. Baakisimba: Gender in the Music and Dance of the Baganda People
of Uganda. London: Routledge.
Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia. 2006. “Constructing the Popular: Challenges of Archiving Ugandan ‘Popular Music.’” Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa 18 (2): 33–52.
Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia. 2012. “What is ‘African Music’? Conceptualisations of ‘African Music’ in Bergen (Norway) and Uppsala (Sweden).” In Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from
Uganda and Beyond, edited by S. Nannyonga-Tamusuza and T. Solomon, 188–215. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia, and Andrew N. Weintraub. 2012. “The Audible Future: Reimagining the Role of Sound Archives and Sound Repatriation in Uganda.” Ethnomusicology 56 (2): 206–233.
Okpewho, Isidore. 1992. African Oral Literature: Backgrounds, Character, and Continuity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Phyllis, Mauch, ed. 1999. The Ethics of Collecting Cultural Property: Whose Culture? Whose Property? Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Sanga, Imani. 2014. “Postcolonial Archival Fever and the Musical Archiving of African Identity in Selected Paintings by Elias Jengo.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 26 (2): 140–154.
Seeger, Anthony. 2004. “New Technology Requires New Collaborations: Changing Ourselves to Better Shape the Future.” Musicology Australia 27 (1): 94–110.
Ssempijja, Nicholas. 2022. “Historicising the Role of the Department of Performing Arts and Film in the Development of Theatre in Uganda.” In Historicising the Humanities at Makerere: Trends, Patterns and Prospects, edited by J. Ahikere, L. Mugumya, E.F. Nabutanyi and P. Atekyereza, 106–141. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
Ssentogo, Jimmy S. 2016. “The District Belongs to the Sons of the Soil”: Decentralization and the Entrenchment of Ethnic Exclusion in Uganda.” Identity, Culture, & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue 17 (1): 60–96.
Sterling, Stephen. 2010. “Sustainable Education.” Science, Society, and Sustainability, 127–140. London: Routledge.
Taylor, Diana. 2003. The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press.
Titon, Jeff T. 2009. “Music and Sustainability: An Ecological Viewpoint.” The World of Music, 119–137.
Torkonoo, Gertrude. 2012. “Creating Capital from Culture — R ethinking the Provisions on Expressions of Folklore in Ghana’s Copyright Law.” Annual Review of International and Comparative Law, 18:1.
Virkkula, Esa. 2016. “Communities of Practice in the Conservatory: Learning with a Professional Musician.” The British Journal of Music Education 33 (1): 27–42.
Wabyona, Milton. 2023. “Zadok Adolu-Otojoka and Music Education in Uganda: An Oral History.” Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 44 (2): 248–274.
Zavala, Miguel. 2016. “Decolonial Methodologies in Education.” Encyclopaedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory: 1–6.
Interviews by the Author:
Bisaso, Albert. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 28 September 2023.
Butoto, James. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 17 September 2021.
Kibirige, Ronald. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 7 June 2023.
Kijjogwa Robert. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 2 November 2023.
Ssemaganda, Gerald. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 29 March 2023.
Wamange, Susan. Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. 4 November 2021.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF AFRICAN MUSIC, Rhodes University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
