22 “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka”

Per Ssempeke’s account, in “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka” we encounter a confluence of kinship, spirituality, and sociality. The first idea the singer examines is the kinship ties of the family. The main source of conflict is the contentious relationship between husband and wife, but the mother-in-law also plays a crucial role, serving as a mediator between the disagreeing parents. Mediation is beneficial in any mutual relationship, and mediation by a third party is also a foundational principle of the Kiganda kinship system. Beyond lamenting this conflict, the singer laments the loss of his child. Finally, the evocation of Kibuuka reflects the importance of spirituality when mediating conflict. The singer calls on Kibuuka to assist him, hoping that the deity’s power will sway things in his favor. However, Kibuuka does not exert power in an obvious way, through brute force and coercion. Instead, the performer seeks out Kibuuka to convince his mother-in-law to change her mind and return his child to him of her own accord. Thus, the song’s spiritual invocation avoids spectacular miracles and explosive movements, instead asking for slight and subtle shifts that, in this case, have a greater effect.

Some Baganda perform “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka” in ritual contexts that involve summoning different kinds of spirits. Peter Hoesing has shown how, through such contexts, one may better understand the pantheon of Kiganda spirits and epistemological structures.2Hoesing 2019, 97. These spirits may include territorial spirits, working spirits, and the spirits of ancestors.3Ibid. John Janzen shows that when they are called upon during spirit mediumship (okusamira), they vary in their specificity and function as well as their temperament.4Janzen 1992, 94–95. David L. Schoenbrun further suggests that this practice is part of a broader set of healing practices called ngòmà, which are used to understand how physical maladies relate to various supernatural forces. Affected persons come together in healing ceremonies that rely heavily on ritual music, engaging in conversation with healers and supporters through singing, drumming, and dancing.5Schoenbrun 2006, 1419–1420. In this way, musical performance serves as a tool for social and spiritual redress. “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka” evokes the feeling of these practices, as it invokes a supernatural being to facilitate social redress.

In Ssempeke’s performance of “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka,” which he shared after a presentation of its instrumental version on the notched flute (endere), he sings variations of the same melody, unaccompanied by instrumentation. After his voice ascends and descends through the melody, he ends each phrase on the root note, establishing the song’s key. Ssempeke intersperses his performance with quick slides and brief inflections. His timid and forlorn singing evokes the feeling of the contentious relationship between the couple in question. He also brings out the song’s spiritual aspects by repeating several lyrics, minimizing development of melodic material, and delivering the lyrics in an introspective, meditative fashion. His performance ebbs and flows with tranquility, suggesting associations with solace and faith. Overall, Ssempeke’s melodic and lyrical delivery captures the song’s focus on determination. He sings,

Throughout the lyrics of “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka,” the singer invokes the spirit Kibuuka, wielding the name as a threat or warning to his mother-in-law. The husband wishes she would return his child and warns her that she must do so in time (lines 5, 7, and 11). Although the singer never addresses Kibuuka directly, instead appearing to speak to the mother-in-law, the line “Let me plod with a stick close to Kibuuka” implies that he is entreating Kibuuka to assist in his objective, to overrule the decision of the mother-in-law in the process. Interestingly, there is no mention of force or coercion in the lyrics. The singer does not describe Kibuuka as taking the child and giving it to him. Instead, he expects the mother-in-law to return the child herself, painting Kibuuka as an indirect and subtle actor, one who produces results without directly participating in the process. Overall, “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka” signifies a failed instance of reciprocity: neither side of the relationship confronts their disagreements to seek a resolution. Instead, the ex-wife decides to let it taper off. Furthermore, although the mother-in-law refuses to help the son-in-law and decides not to take a position on the issues between him and her daughter, her passivity still impacts the couple’s relationship. Her lack of action is still an action, a force, intersecting in the relationship from a third stream. This behavior imbues “Let Me Plod with a Stick Close to Kibuuka” with fresh meaning as a demonstration of how marriage—typically represented as a bond between two people—becomes striated by relationships that supposedly exist outside of the marital arrangement. Thus, we cannot reduce interchangeability to instances of exchange that are immediately visible, but we must recognize that relationships take on invisible, subtextual forms. Invoking Kibuuka affirms this idea again, as it begets another type of subliminal reciprocity in the relationship. Kibuuka’s intervention stands parallel to the mother-in-law’s own neutrality, as both appear to act by their nonaction and move with stillness.