Peter Hoesing

This photograph might not look like much, but it depicts some of the results of a beautiful collaborative endeavor.  It’s completely unclear at this point where and when the main collaborators will be recognized.  I want to use this forum, small as it may currently be, to publicly recognize those people.

Two years ago, while I was on a three-month stint in Uganda for language training and preliminary dissertation research, I met a colleague named Suzanne Wint.  She was in Uganda on a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.  From the first day we met, I noticed that Suzanne reaches out to colleagues across disciplines to engage in scholarly discourse and undertake interesting projects.  On previous trips to Uganda, she had met Drs. Justinian Tamusuza and Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza, both professors of music at Makerere University’s Department of Music, Dance and Drama (MDD) here in Kampala.  Both Suzanne and I had met some of their best students, no fewer than three of whom are now pursuing terminal degrees in music.  She noticed, however, that preparing these students for graduate programs had been unnecessarily difficult.  These fine professors had been lending from their personal libraries so that eager students could work with essential literature.  The main library has a negligible music collection, and at the time MDD had virtually no collection of its own.

Suzanne paired her status as a Fulbright-Hays Scholar with her network of colleagues at the University of Chicago to build a music collection for MDD.  She had hundreds of pounds of books sent to Uganda to build the initial collection.  Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Clendinning, Professor of Music Theory at Florida State University, came to Uganda that summer for a short visit.  She and I both saw what Suzanne was doing and decided that we had to find a way to help.  When I got back to Florida State after that summer, I linked up with Dr. Clendinning and we used our departmental listservs to request that our colleagues donate their desk copies of textbooks and as many monographs as possible.  We received an overwhelming response, and Dr. Clendinning paid out of pocket to ship books from Florida State.

Now Dr. Nannyonga-Tamusuza had been receiving books from another professor from Pittsburgh University for some time.  Now there are three separate universities concentrating their efforts on building this collection.  On the Ugandan side, Dr. Nannyonga-Tamusuza has been very busy ensuring that these books have a secure home.  The new MDD reading room features locked shelving, a large table for reading and small seminars, and some more efficient shelving for instrument storage.  I’ve had the privilege of visiting that space on several occasions already, and it’s wonderful to see students there using the materials and enjoying a quiet space to study.

What you see in the photograph above is only the beginning of these efforts.  Dr. Nannyonga-Tamusuza has worked with the main Makerere library, the American Embassy and two Norwegian grant makers to build a new listening lab.

Dr. Clendinning is currently organizing several more boxes of donations from Florida State students and professors.  Now that the reading room has been stocked with basic texts for undergraduate curricula, I hope to work with Suzanne and other American colleagues to secure continuing donations of monographs and biographies for historical and ethnomusicological research.  Meanwhile, scholars working on music in Uganda know that their theses and dissertations will have a home at MDD, where we hope that students will read and critique them as we continue to foster discourse and interaction among American and Ugandan music scholars.

Suzanne really taught me a great deal about overseas field research during that first summer in Kampala.  Whereas an old paradigm in anthropological and ethnomusicological research used “informant gifts” and even direct payment, these methods seem to pay our field consultants to be silent after we return home and write up.  This is the worst kind of field exit.  Being nice to consultants, buying gifts and paying for transport is still important.  Paying transcription assistants an honest day’s wage is still an honorable and necessary protocol.  However, Suzanne’s dedication to this project reflects a spirit of fully engaging local scholars and field consultants in intellectual discourse.

Our work will be richer for this kind of interaction, but that’s not even the best reason to do it.  Now there’s a whole new generation of African ethnomusicologists who will make meaningful contributions to the field.  Working to ensure their access to resources isn’t a way to “pay” people.  Trite as it may sound, being a good neighbor just makes the world a better place.

Can’t wait to see an offering from this generation of African ethnomusicologists?  Here’s a preview.  Artist feature coming soon . . .

Dubai was wonderful for all of twenty hours, where I enjoyed the hospitality of a couple of fellow Luther College alumni. Thanks for a soulful stay, Adam and Allison! They took me to this swanky beach bar to stretch my legs from the long plane ride and drink a beer:

What can I say about Dubai?  It’s the next big thing on this side of the globe, and it’s getting bigger every day.

Despite the lack of sleep resulting from three days of on-again-off-again travel, the African landscape had me feeling really good as soon as we departed from the airport.

Thanks!  Think I’ll stay a while…My ssenga (father’s sister*) picked me up from the airport.  She’s a nun who works at a school in Entebbe.  She took me back to the convent, gave me a much-needed place to bathe, and fed me a delicious first taste of Ugandan deliciousness: ekyenyanja.  Yum.

Ssenga Nakato (Auntie Nakato) and I then drove toward Kampala to meet up with Taata wange (my [Ugandan] Dad], Mwami Magoba Waalabyeeki.  We picked him up from his job at CBS, which is the Central Broadcasting Service, Buganda kingdom’s main outlet for Luganda vernacular news and entertainment in both broadcast and print media.  By the time we got back to Mwami Magoba’s place, it was about 9:15 or 9:30: time for supper!  Warm greetings preceded a feast prepared by the gracious Ugandan host family I have come to love.  They prepared a very special luwombo.

Luwombo is the thing on the left there.  On the right, there’s matooke (banana mash) with binyeebwa (peanut sauce), squash, rice, posho, greens, potatoes, etc. Luwombo is like a little crockpot made of banana leaves.

In this shot, mwannyinaze (sister/cousin) Anna ajjula–she’s uncovering the luwombo:

I gave Mwami ne Mukyala Magoba (Mr. and Mrs. Magoba) some small gifts after dinner.  Mr. Magoba is a writer, so he got this book for jotting ideas:

Jenn was kind enough to get a gift together for Mrs. Magoba. Here she is in her new necklace:

For the others, I had to find something light weight that would go over well with the whole clan (literally).  They enjoyed some fresh dates from Dubai.  Dad, if you’re reading this, remind me to get you some on the way back through there:

Finally, I must thank Settimba Charles Lwanga (pictured here sporting his daily sleeveless swagger).  He’s the household-appointed “Ghetto Prezident.”  There’s an artist here called Bobbi Wine who has dubbed himself in similar fashion, but I doubt his good humor and hospitality can compare with that of Settimba and the rest of the Ffumbe clan.

*Nota bene: Throughout this blog, I use Kiganda terms for kinship to refer to those who have made me part of their family here. This helps me keep track of kin relationships and how they work in Uganda. For you, dear readers, I will try to use the English terms in parentheses as I have here.

Today this blog takes a different turn.  If you missed the first installment of Kigozi’s adventures in Africa, I hope you can join the fun here and refer to it as necessary for background information.  If you’re returning with interest in my travels, thanks for reading and please don’t hesitate to comment, challenge, contradict, argue with, encourage, or make fun of me.  I welcome your reactions.

I’m taking a break from academic work for a bit to smile at some of the quiet ironies that make us forget the mundane indignities of travel.  Observe: the “first class” and “business class” lounge:

Wow, isn’t that great? Mr. International Business Traveler will think: “Nice chairs, very quiet and comfortable…Emirates Airlines sure did build a nice terminal. But hey, wait a minute! Aren’t those chairs right over there that look just as comfortable for the schmucks in economy class? Where’s my smug sense of bourgeois satisfaction?”

Well, it’s probably upstairs somewhere swimming in a glass of overpriced booze that has a nice view of the Burger Falafel King next to it. Maybe you can even see us mere mortals enjoying some of the same high-speed internet that you’re using to work for Big Brother.

Note here that were it not for the fully reclining seats, I would never throw such thinly veiled jealous quips toward the traveling elite.  All the same, this is a pretty cool airport whether you’re rockin’ a Rolex cell phone or not.

I hope you’ll stick with me for some more exciting images of Dubai and later Uganda. I’ll even promise not to engage in such blatantly futile class warfare. Truth be told, Emirates has the coolest in-flight entertainment system I’ve ever seen, and this airport’s cold slickness betrays the otherwise friendly demeanor of its staff.

Until next time…

My wife and I are doing some things that I’ve wanted to get into for a long time: checking out classic movies and literature.  You might say that we’ve had classic taste in other arenas for a long time.  We both grew up playing and listening to jazz, appreciating classical music, and I even sang some opera scenes in college.  We both stick to non-trendy looks when it comes to style (with some notable exceptions).  Even our silverware is a design that Oneida isn’t likely to discontinue any time soon.  You get the idea.  Somehow, we’ve always had some musicals and classic novels in the backs of our minds that we just never saw or read.

Well, I just finished one of Jenn’s favorite books, Truman Capote’s acclaimed nonfiction novel In Cold Blood.  We watched the movie Capote again recently, so I decided to follow up with a second read through Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  Meanwhile, Jenn is tackling the behemoth Southern classic Gone With the Wind.  Last night, after a really tasty pizza at our favorite local family restaurant, we settled into Easter Parade.  Judy Garland and Fred Astaire song-and-danced their way through a film that we both enjoyed thoroughly.  What drummer wouldn’t love this opening dance number?

Although both of us had played the tune many times, neither of us realized that Steppin’ Out With My Baby was from that show.  These are things two music majors ought to know, so I think we’re both pretty pleased with this new old entertainment trend in our lives.

Next up on the Netflix queue: Casablanca.  That’s right: never seen it.  What can you do?  It’s never to late to catch up on the classics.