49 USAD Music Resource Guide • 2017–2018 • Revised Page
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
da ancestral forefather Kintu and his wife Nambi.77 is a list of ensembles and solo instruments associat- ed with it. 80 In some traditions he is the first kabaka (king) of Buganda; in others a later individual named Kato- Entamiivu ensemble (six drums and twelve- tationRuhuuga until took the on second Kintu’s half name of the and nineteenth became the centu first- key amadinda xylophone) kabaka. In the absence of relevant written documen- Akadinda (twenty-four-key xylophone) ry, some scholars have estimated generations back. Kawuugulu (set of six drums) Theward oldest and dated of the the royal origins instruments, of the Buganda a pair ofkingdom drums Mujaguzo (drums of kingship) to Kabaka Kintu in the early fourteenth century ce Emibala (praise drums of the king) - that formed the nucleus of the Kawuugulu set, are Amaggunju (dance drums) believed to date back to at least this first king. It78 was Entenga (tuned drum/drum-chime ensem during the reign of the ninth king, Kabaka Mulondo, - ble) that the full six-drum Kawuugulu set emerged. Lyre (endongo) The kingship of Buganda had major repercus Harp (enanga) sions for the modern nation of Uganda. The Uganda andAgreement his chiefs. of 1900 British established administrators British appointed colonial rule Ba- Fiddle (endingidi) and British indirect rule via the kabaka of Buganda Flute (ndere) - Abalere Side-blown trumpet (amakondere) ganda chiefs to govern other areas of Uganda, which gave the Baganda a privileged status. Due to arbi- (flute and drum ensemble) - trary colonial boundaries, Uganda encompasses the Abadongo (fiddle, flute, and lyre ensemble) relatively centralized Bantu kingdoms in the pre In the mid-1960s, just before the palace was at dominantly Christian south, where there is greater- tacked, there were 315 drummers employed by the limurbanization, north. as well as the unrelated Nilotic and kabaka’s government. During this time there was a Sudanic peoples who live in the predominantly Mus rich musical life around the palace. Musicians lived- within the royal enclosure, and there were several- When Uganda gained independence in 1962, it- entdaily in performances, the palace. not only to entertain the kaba was ruled by prime minister Milton Obote along- ka, but also to let81 the public know that he was pres with the thirty-fifth kabaka, Muteesa II, as a cere Xylophone and Drum Ensemble monial president. In 1966 Obote’s army, led by Col (Entamiivu) onel Idi Amin, attacked the kabaka’s palace (called The xylophone that we will examine closely has armyLubiri) occupied located inthe the palace Mengo and suburb destroyed of the instrucapital- Kampala, forcing the king and others to flee. The ments and other symbols of the kabaka’s rule. In 1967 a new constitution abolished the traditional kingdoms of Buganda, Ankole, Bunyoro, Busoga, and Toro. Idi Amin ousted Obote in a military coup in 1971 and notoriously expelled tens of thousands of South Asian residents and immigrants. Buganda- royal court music was not heard again until 1993, when the Buganda kingship was restored, with Ron79 ald Muwenda Mutebi II as the thirty-sixth kabaka. English and Swahili are official national languages in Uganda. An akadinda (similar to an amadinda, but with The Buganda royal court has a rich history with more slats). a variety of music ensembles. Just to give a sense of the diversity of music patronized by the court, here USAD Music Resource Guide • 2017–2018 • Revised Page 49.