Views on Change and the Past of Music in Uganda. An Analysis of Coloniality in Music Research

Abstract

This essay, developed from research for the author’s master’s thesis, aims to investigate the presence of issues of the past and historical change in musicological literature on Uganda from the British colonial era. Theoretically grounded in postcolonial discussions of knowledge, power and coloniality, it examines regional manifestations of views on African music that have been developed in Eurocentric knowledge perspectives. For this purpose, a body of mainly textual sources (research publications, reports, newsletters, and other documents) has been analysed and interpreted regarding terminology, concepts, attitudes, and narratives. A special focus is thereby set on the activities and contributions of Klaus Wachsmann from the 1930s to the 1960s. The parts of the investigation’s results that are presented here concern two aspects: on the one hand perspectives on the past of musical phenomena in Uganda and its interpretation through diffusionistic and other narratives; on the other hand, voiced concerns about changes in African musical cultures and supposed loss of traditions or authenticity. In both tendencies, imaginations of humans and music in Africa as fundamental Others to those in Europe become evident, as well as essentialist conceptions of social or ‘ethnic’ affiliation and tradition.