Taking Cues from the Story and Song
Different themes in Kinene’s story drew my attention to various strategies that would be applicable to my ethnographic experiences. The process of harvesting white ants—requiring as it does both an in-depth understanding of the ant’s relationship with the environment and an appreciation for the environment’s effect—was particularly useful. The relationship in question is evident in harvesters’ use of various tools to reproduce the effects of sunlight and rain to trick the ants into leaving the hill whenever they want them to. The process speaks to the importance of connection, not just among people but with the environment. Without a strong grasp of the context within which the ants live, effective harvesting may not be possible. However, with an understanding of the relationship between the ants and their environment, one can successfully harvest them with consistency and relative ease. Harvesters build the importance of this relationship into the process of harvesting white ants outright.
Kinene’s story also highlights the benefits that come from collaboration. It demonstrates that even though hard work is important, it does very little if done in solitude. In other words, success is not an individual achievement but the outcome of community and collaboration. The story reminds us that true success draws on harnessing a mutually respectful social contract and an immersive experience. Similar to the process of harvesting white ants, creating Interpreting Court Song in Uganda was not a solitary deed but a process of building relationships. From data collection to research collaborators’ analyses, the process depended on our respective and cooperative work as researchers, composer-performers, interpreters, analysts, commentators, and student research assistants. By engaging in various complementary tasks, we harvested a rich collection of voices and perspectives. Interpreting Court Song in Uganda became a culmination of numerous engagements, experiences, and interactions, all of which extended beyond my early studies with experts in Kiganda music and dance, training in ethnomusicology, extensive research on Kiganda royal court music, and collaborative work with several individuals.
Furthermore, the uses of white ants that Kinene describes show how the harvesting of the insects has a wide-reach impact, intersecting with the social and economic life of many Baganda. They function to both produce and preserve kinship, which reflects further on their investment in interconnectedness. Kinene’s description of harvesting white ants embodies the importance of both dedication and interdependency, not only in the methods people use to harvest them but also in the ways in which they use them after the fact. This complex process further prompted me to reimagine the song “The Harvester of White Ants” in a way that highlights how the harvesting procedure emulates reciprocity at every stage of its existence. Knowledge of the process was key to the construction of meaning in both the song and my ethnographic work.
Kinene’s story and the lyrics of “The Harvester of White Ants” also highlight the benefits that come from industriousness, dedication, and making the most of opportunities. The lyrics tackle the themes of the benefits of hard work and seizing opportunities, painting a picture of success through the motifs of ants and termites. While these insects are traditional food of Buganda, they also represent values of determination and success, themes that one of my research collaborators, Semeo Ssemambo Ssebuwufu, stresses in his interpretation of “The Harvester of White Ants” when he notes:
The song means that the person who harvests white ants is also able to find and eat termites … In terms of seasonality, termites usually appear before white ants. So someone who does not go to catch white ants will not get both ants and termites.
1Ssebuwufu interview, June 10, 2013.In Kinene’s own interpretation of “The Harvester of White Ants,” he expands on Ssebuwufu’s focus on the seasonal relationship between termites and white ants by explaining that one could miss the opportunity to harvest if one allows the ants to grow too hard-skinned. This perspective further highlights reciprocity in the relationship that the white ants in Kinene’s story have with their environment, as it shows how they behave differently depending on the occurrences around them. Ssebuwufu and Kinene give us more tools to interpret “The Harvester of White Ants.” Their complementary perspectives underscore the collective and dynamic meaning-making process that is at the heart of the lyrical interpretations featured in this book. Furthermore, Ssebuwufu’s and Kinene’s perspectives shed light on how the one who takes the initiative in a chore such as harvesting white ants can gain added benefit from it, that is, enjoying the additional benefits of termites. Underlining the importance of hard work, this belief reminds us that if one engages in challenging field activities, one might reap gains beyond what one originally expected.