Promoting folk songs will sustain culture - music don

By Carol Natukunda

Integrating traditional folk songs and dance into modern music will make a difference in sustaining culture, a senior music, dance and drama professor has said.

Dr. Mercy Mirembe Ntangaare, an associate Professor of Drama at  Makerere University, said she is happy that some Ugandan pop artists are incorporating traditional rhythms, beats and messages into their songs.

Ntangaare, who is also a playwright said at Makerere University’s Performing Arts and Film Department, the study of dance and music, is intended to “transmit some of these values with us into the future.”

“We also have different festivals, cultural and music, outside schools that engage items of our traditions and culture,” she adds.

“In short, we the people are variously involved in transmission of these cultural items and their attributes into the future. There’s nothing that will remain as traditional as of long time ago because traditions live among or within us. One could say they are us,” she says.

Sunday Vision story recently published a story on the popular traditional dances based on a performance at Ndere Center. Among them were Kinyege dance, and Kadodi dance, Lunyege dance, the Laraka-raka dance as the crowd’s favourite.

Ntangaare, however, advises against categorizing traditional dances.

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“First, there are many nationalities (ethnicities) and each exists as a dignified entity not subordinate to any other  tribes,” she says.

“Secondly, there are different types or forms of traditional dance, each existing to serve a specific/designated function but following the human life cycle that is birth, puberty, marriage, adulthood/eldership, death and burial. The dances cover these rites of passage but also the activities we do at or in between those rites. For example, we have dances that deal with the birth rite, depending on whether it’s a normal birth, spiritual birth, the sexes of the children, royal births. We have dances for the remaining four rites of passage, accordingly,” explains Ntangaare.

She further notes that dance can also be situational or occupational. Hence the choreography, drum rhythms, voice pitch, costuming, foot work, instrumentation, is different and incomparable right from the start.

“There’s nothing described as better or the best unless you are comparing dances of the same people regarding the same rite or activity. Then that brings in the idea of competition and ceases to be dance performed for cultural purposes,” she stresses

According to Ntangaare, dance is a form of language.

“It has to or communicates a message for which it is intended. War dances will communicate a message of war, either as mobilisational tools or celebration of the good news or victory among other things.  Death dances will likewise not just set the mood for the occasion but also inform us of the purpose for their performance and so on,” says Ntangaare.

So what if Ntangaare was at a party or wedding ceremony, what traditional song would she request to be played?

“I would be mindful of the cultures of the hosts as different cultures have specific dances for difference ceremonies,” she states.

Elaborating more about the dances that come with particularly the wedding ceremonies, Ntangaare, says: “For example, if the couple comes from Buganda, then Mbaga dance would be ideal. Just as its name implies, Mbaga dance is a wedding dance – as a celebration and instruction dance. If the couple is from Ankole, I would expect the complete form of Ekitaguriro to be performed. If the couple is from Kigezi, then Ekizino and so on! If the couple is of mixed cultural backgrounds and heritage as is becoming common these days, they could have the dances for the marriage rite from both tribes performed or choose which one to use.”

Ntangaare is happy that the traditional dances have stood the test of time. However, she is quick to point out that like any other part of folklore, the traditional dance in many aspects “losing” its traditions and getting modified.

“The good thing is that folklore is not static. It grows with the people. We are the ones who make or unmake it. If we don’t make an effort to transmit it to future generations then it certainly will die out with us. Where we make efforts then it will adjust to our ways of living and exist in that “new” form,” she says

She commends the Nabagereka of Buganda in her Ekisakate programme for contributing to the transmission of these cultural items and values.  She says through concerts in schools, it can help to diffuse the culture among students.


Relates to the story

Ndere centre, where African culture is very alive

Old-time dances revived at the Victoria Ballroom dance

Dances with rules: China to keep performers in line

Kisenyi dances to safer sex, 20,000 condoms given out