Tuning the Kingdom
Title Details

180 Pages

0 x 0 cm

25 colour, 20 line illus.

Series: Eastman/Rochester Studies Ethnomusicology

Series Vol. Number: 8

Imprint: University of Rochester Press

Tuning the Kingdom

Kawuugulu Musical Performance, Politics, and Storytelling in Buganda

by Damascus Kafumbe

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
Examines how the Kawuugulu Clan-Royal Musical Ensemble uses musical performance and storytelling to manage, structure, model, and legitimize power relations among the Baganda people of south-central Uganda.

Tuning the Kingdom draws on oral and written accounts, archival research, and musical analysis to examine how the Kawuugulu Clan-Royal Musical Ensemble of the Kingdom of Buganda (arguably the kingdom's oldest and longest-surviving performance ensemble) has historically managed, structured, modeled, and legitimized power relations among the Baganda people of south-central Uganda. Damascus Kafumbe argues that the ensemble sustains a complex sociopolitical hierarchy, interweaving and maintaining a delicate balance between kin and clan ties and royal prerogatives through musical performance and storytelling that integrates human and nonhuman stories. He describes this phenomenonas "tuning the kingdom," and he compares it to the process of tensioning or stretching Kiganda drums, which are always moving in and out of tune. Even as Kawuugulu continues to adapt to the rapidly changing world around it, Tuning the Kingdom documents how Kawuugulu has historically articulated and embodied principles of the three inextricably related domains that serve as the backbone of Kiganda politics: kinship, clanship, and kingship.

Damascus Kafumbe is Assistant Professor of Music at Middlebury College.
Introduction
The Kawuugulu Clan-Royal Music and Dance Ensemble
Kawuugulu and Intra-Clan Politics
Kawuugulu and Royal Politics
Kawuugulu and Inter-Clan Politics
Conclusion: A Performative Constitution

DAMASCUS KAFUMBE is Associate Professor of music at Middlebury College, VT.

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May 2018

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Title Details

180 Pages

0 x 0 cm

25 colour, 20 line illus.

Series: Eastman/Rochester Studies Ethnomusicology

Series Vol. Number: 8

Imprint: University of Rochester Press