Focus of the Book’s Narrative

Damascus Kafumbe

Throughout my research with the song composer-performers and interpreters who contributed to this study, we prioritized the lyrical content of court songs. Interactions with these research collaborators led me to the realization that a more sonically oriented study would bring our discussion away from Kiganda worldviews and the cultural importance of the court songs under investigation. However, I perform some light musical analysis to highlight key connections between the sonic and extra-sonic elements of the songs, including the extent to which stylistic elements mark themes of power relations that emerge in the lyrics. Indeed, the lyrics and their political meanings are the focus of the book’s narrative. This focus aligns with another suggestion that research collaborators gave to me regarding underscoring the practical applications of the lyrics’ meanings, particularly their relevance to social relations. In this spirit, Interpreting Court Song in Uganda takes an approach to engaging with music slightly different from that of many ethnomusicologists.

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Interpreting Court Song in Uganda

Stable URL:https://openaccess.boydellandbrewercms.com/?id=-300627

Open Access license

A critical interpretation of essential Kiganda royal court songs that examines how the meanings of their lyrics enter into dynamic dialogue with contemporary national politics in Uganda.

Lyric interpretation, which Damascus Kafumbe defines as a process of creative renewal that infuses vitality into songs, enables interpreters and analysts to derive a multiplicity of meanings from songs instead of being limited to a single literal narrative. As he and his research collaborators demonstrate throughout Interpreting Court Song in Uganda, the process extends the life of a song by allowing it to generate new versions, meanings, and relevance. Kafumbe examines how lyric interpretation serves to renew the lives of twenty-one songs from the repertoires of royal court musicians of the Kingdom of Buganda, arguing that the meanings of these songs are not singular, static, and monolithic but rather dynamic and multivalent.
Through extensive research within past and present contexts, Kafumbe presents a series of unique perspectives on the ways Kiganda court songs reflect varied kinds of power relations. These meanings, which surface via lyric interpretation, come from daily interactions among citizens and between leaders and subjects. This interpretive process helps illuminate truths and clarify myths about the power dynamics that shape political life in present-day Uganda, highlighting the relevance of court song lyrics to contemporary national contexts. By engaging with the book's wide range of voices, readers will learn to appreciate these songs, their historical and contemporary contexts, and their composer-performers' stories and interpretations more fully.

This book is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.

Author

Damascus Kafumbe

PublisherUniversity of Rochester Press

Print publication date Aug, 2025

Print ISBN 9781648251221

EISBN 9781805433330

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Focus of the Book’s Narrative

Interpreting Court Song in Uganda

Chapter illustrations ()