‘Don’t Talk into my Talk’:oral narratives, cultural identity & popular performance in Colonial Uganda
Authors
Kasule, SamuelAffiliation
University of DerbyIssue Date
2010-11-18
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Performance in colonial Uganda was dominated by dance and song, although individual technical mastery of dance, song, and instrumentation was a prerogative of the professional performers and court musicians who played at the royal courts, beer parties, and market places. There are limited written materials available on indigenous performances of the colonial period in Buganda. However, the existence of a corpus of archival Luganda musical recordings, going back to the 1930s, and oral narratives of aged people, gives us an insight into performance activities of this period. Old musical recordings help us to understand various forms of performance about which we know little, and contribute to aspects of performance that have shaped contemporary Ugandan theatre. The essay identifies popular performances a form existing before colonisation, how these were ‘documented’ and what has survived. It examines how the texts, impacted on by complex colonial and missionary systems reveal syncretised popular performance infrastructures. Finally, it explores the notion of the body as a “memory” reflecting on selected Ugandan indigenous aesthetics of performance.Citation
Kasule, S. (2010) '‘Don’t Talk into my Talk’:oral narratives, cultural identity & popular performance in Colonial Uganda' in Banham, Martin, Gibbs, James and Osofisan, Femi (eds.) 'African Theatre 9: Histories 1850-1950, Boydell and Brewer, Martlesham, Suffolk, UK.Publisher
James CurreyType
Book chapterLanguage
enDescription
The essay draws on available archival sources and conversations with performance practitioners to 'recover moments from the past'demonstrating the relationship between performers, society and the colonial masters.ISBN
978-1-84701-014-8The following license files are associated with this item: