Other Research Collaborators
Interpreters of the court songs discussed throughout this book include Edward Ssebunnya Kironde, Harriet Kisuule, John Magandaazi Kityo, Jimmy Ssenfuka Kibirige, Jessy Ssendawula, Steven Mukasa Kabugo, and Peter Kinene. I share minimal personal information about these interpreters to protect them from any backlash for exercising their voice about sensitive political matters. In some of their commentaries, they often point to a handful of current Ugandan cultural and national leaders, including General President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as well as members of his cabinet such as Major General Minister Kahinda Otafiire; and two of President Museveni’s major political opponents, Honorable Activist Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (also a music artist popularly known by his stage name Bobi Wine) and Colonel Dr. Kizza Besigye. Cultural leaders include Buganda’s King (Kabaka) Ronald Mutebi II (r. 1993–present) and Prime Minister (Katikkiro) Charles Peter Mayiga. I must stress that the political views featured in the interpreters’ commentaries, which they shared willingly, are not my own. My analysis of these views only seeks to clarify interpreters’ opinions, which may seem to digress at times.
I transcribed, translated, and analyzed the Luganda interviews on which this book’s narrative draws with some input from the following long-term Ugandan collaborators: Kabenge Gombe, a drummer and choir conductor, Mushroom (Butiko) Clan leader, retired lecturer, Kiganda culture historian, and Luganda specialist; Waalabyeki Magoba, a journalist, creative artist (actor, scriptwriter, producer), Luganda author, radio presenter, and Kiganda culture consultant; Francisca Nakachwa, a music teacher and practitioner; Jessy Sendawula, Jimmy Ssenfuka Kibirige, and Peter Kinene, all three of whom were among the aforementioned interpreters. These colleagues made invaluable contributions to Interpreting Court Song in Uganda and its development.
I also refined and produced this book with input from numerous Middlebury College student research assistants and collaborators, including Emma Binks, Annie Beliveau, Elizabeth Cady, Vaughan Supple, Angelina Como-Mosconi, Brett Sorbo, and Ryo Nishikubo. These students first took my ethnomusicology courses, and many were eager to apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills. Their roles included editing the project’s prose for style, brainstorming broader conceptual and structural issues such as chapter sequencing, and analyzing translated interview transcripts as well as sonic and extra-sonic elements of the songs discussed throughout this study. These, among other roles, occasionally involved contributing new text that was based on my original research and preexisting ideas. Binks and I edited the first draft of the English translations of the interviews I conducted in 2019 and 2020. In the early stages of assembling the book, Beliveau worked with me to analyze these translations and those of interviews I had conducted between 2000 and 2015. We identified and grouped conceptual themes within court song lyrics and composer-performers’ biographies. Cady, with whom I coproduced the film Drum Making as a Way of Life in Southern Uganda, collaborated with me to edit all interview translations and assemble the first draft of the manuscript. She also acted as a sounding board for my ideas about the draft’s themes and assisted with summarizing content from pertinent secondary sources. Supple served as a developmental coeditor, providing feedback on the thematic and structural content of the second draft of the manuscript. He also copyedited the draft’s narrative and offered substantial input on the analysis of the sonic elements of the songs I discuss. Como-Mosconi copyedited the book’s third draft. Sorbo assisted with secondary research and copyedited the final draft, suggesting ways to revise the prose for concision. Nishikubo and I collaborated on fleshing out the extent to which the interpreters featured throughout the book reimagined Kiganda court song repertoire in contemporary political contexts. Drawing on my notion of recasting the song, he extensively commented on and theorized various interpretations of lyrical meanings in the first draft of the manuscript. His engagement with interpreters’ commentaries via this idea enhanced the theoretical tone of this project, which would have turned out differently without Nishikubo’s input.