Culture

Uganda has many different ethnic groups; in the north are Nilotic groups like the Alur and Acholi, while in the south are Bantu groups like the Baganda, Bunyoro and Banyankole. 

Since there are many different native languages, English and Swahili are the lingua franca in the region - lucky for me!

In Kampala the local native language is Luganda and I am trying to learn some phrases to impress the locals!

The Ndere center is a great place to learn about traditional Ugandan culture through music and dance.  I went to see the performance on May 30.  Here's a very short video to give you a sense of how the music sounds.

The instruments included adungu (the five players on the left), which are stringed instruments from West Nile that are played like a harp, and come in different sizes from treble down to bass; a great wooden xylophone in the middle, and big and smaller drums and gourd rattle on the right.

On June 4 the Ndere troupe came to perform at the 10 Year Celebration of vaccine research at Makerere College of Health Sciences, so I got a closer view of the instruments: the bass adungu player was tuning.

Ugandan women traditionally dance from the waist down - all that booty-shaking is great exercise!

The men also get to strut their stuff in traditional dances; in this dance from Bunyoro-Kitara they wear leg-rattles called Binyege to impress the women

The grand finale illustrates the women's grace and balance - they shimmied around while stacking clay pots higher and higher on their heads.  One pot did fall and break (just to prove they were really made of clay and not wood) - since there is a clay factory next door to the Ndere center I am sure they can be easily replaced.