Doctoral Degrees (Music)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Music) by browse.metadata.advisor "Kohler, Ralf-Alexander"

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    Collaborative archiving of music and dance : framework for a more-inclusive postcolonial archive among contemporary Bagisu, Uganda
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Makwa, Dominic D.B.; Kohler, Ralf-Alexander; Nannyonga-Tamusuza, Sylvia; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Music.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this study, I examine the approaches the Bagisu people of eastern Uganda have used to archive their music and dance. This study was conducted against the backdrop that despite the proliferation of substantial work on reconceptualising the archive and archiving, there are inadequate studies on the approaches indigenous communities use to archive their music and dance, and how such approaches have been influenced by socio-cultural, religious, economic and technological conditions. The study is also informed by the inadequate scholarly work on how stakeholders involved in archiving music and dance can collaborate to sustainably archive these cultural materials at community levels. Through an ethnographic approach, I collected data in rural villages of Bududa District and the urban centre of Mbale Town as case studies to investigate how musicians, dancers, community members, cultural leaders, fieldworkers, music collectors, archivists among other stakeholders, participate in archiving music and dance among the Bagisu. I use an ethnomusicological approach to engage with concepts like archive, archiving, decolonisation of the archive, sustainability of an archival practice, power, hybridity and authenticity to investigate the nature of the archive contemporary Bagisu can adopt to preserve music and dance. By discussing the roles several stakeholders can perform under what I have regarded as a ‘more-inclusive postcolonial’ archive, I illuminate how the Bagisu can collaborate with other stakeholders to sustainably archive music and dance in this community. As this study demonstrates, two broad approaches to archiving music and dance among the Bagisu stand out, namely: 1) indigenous and 2) colonial archival practices. I have used the notion of ‘colonial’ approaches to archiving to refer to a form of preservation of music and dance based on practices established by the colonial administration. Conversely, the use of ‘indigenous’ archival practices refers to approaches developed by the Bagisu to safeguard their music and dance. This study has established that although these approaches have a number of advantages, they are also ‘inward-looking’ or ‘closed-ended’, a condition which makes them unsuitable for twenty-first century archiving. As such, I have proposed a framework for a more-inclusive postcolonial archive to act as a platform where several stakeholders can interact and establish archives that serve the needs of both present and future users of the archive. Considering the changing socio-cultural, religious, economic and technological conditions in Uganda, I argue that the establishment of a more-inclusive postcolonial archive opens up possibilities for defining appropriate archival practices of the twenty-first century.