Choral Festival

Church choirs across East Africa came together this weekend at Namirembe Cathedral, Kampala's Anglican (Church of Uganda) cathedral for the Onesong festival.

Everyone enjoyed getting into the spirit before the performances with music led by the Praise and Worship team.  The singers got to their feet and ended up in a giant colorful conga on the lawn!

Ladies of Namirembe Diocesan Choir, from churches across the diocese

The ladies in red dresses were from St. Andrew's Magomeni Choir in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Men from All Saints Nairobi Choir, Kenya

Audience members started joining in!

The ladies of All Saint's Cathedral Nakasero (the Catholic cathedral in Kampala) were dressed in gomesis as colorful as Ugandan butterflies - they could almost have been wearing Japanese kimonos.

The choirs varied from an all men and boys cathedral choir, through a choir of seniors, and a barbershop trio - Uganda's answer to the three tenors!  While most of the music was traditional church music with organ accompaniment, the choirs came alive when they sang in African style, with drums.  My favorite was this choir from Tanzania.

Followed by all Saints Nairobi with this song

The choirs massed for a couple of songs on the theme of East African and church unity; here's an extract from a song written for the occasion by the Kenyan choirmaster who is conducting.  Many of the songs were sung in Swahili or English, lingua franca in the region.