By Stefano
Kampala – National Theatre: Bayimba Cultural Festival
The next day after a long night of no sleep owing to the noise from the street seeping into my room through the walls and windows, we have a hearty breakfast at the Hotels dining room. If there was any consolation for the sleepless night, then the hearty breakfast more than made up for it. The menu consisted of potatoes, beef stew, fried eggs of choice, sausages, toast and assorted beverages.
We then jumped into a special hire outside the hotel and headed out to the National Theatre to make our appointment with Faisal as planned on the previous day.
Faisal was understandably a busy man that day, seeing as it was the final day of the festival. We had to patiently wait for him to break away from his duties before he could meet with us.
While he attended to his duties, he introduced us to a number of musicians who were at the festival grounds, giving us a chance to network and find out more details about the music from the North.
Some of the musicians we met and chatted with were:
Moses Matovu
A sax player and band leader of Afrigo Band. Afrigo band had been listed in a report by on of our research contacts, Peter Hoesing, as being one of the groups we should try see while in Kampala and probably get some information from the band members
Moses admitted that he was not that well informed about music from the North. He however mentioned a name that kept popping up in most conversations we were having about music from Northern Uganda: Sam Okello Kelo.
Sam Okello, formerly of Ndere Troupe but now with a group called Mizizi had also been mentioned by Peter Hoesing and Godfrey Lubuulwa as someone who would have a wealth of information and experience with music from the North.
Kaz Kasozi
Kaz Kasozi is a musician and producer and the music programmes coordinator for Bayimba Cultural Organization. He was also Tshilas producer: one of the prospective artists we were targeting for our influences programme.
Kaz said he had developed a few contacts in Gulu, Soroti and Lira, and he promised to send me their contacts as son as he had access to his computer later that evening.
He also mentioned that music from Gulu had been adulterated extensively by outside influences and was thus difficult to find a purely Acholi traditional group in Gulu. Like Jan and Dnalega before, he also recommended that we visit Arua.
Kaz also made an interesting observation that most traditional music instruments from all over Uganda were more often than not made in Jinja which was to the eastern side of Uganda.
Tshila
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