Interpreting Court Song in Uganda

A critical interpretation of essential Kiganda royal court songs that examines how the meanings of their lyrics operate in dialogue with contemporary national politics in Uganda.

Lyric interpretation, which Damascus Kafumbe defines as a process of creative renewal that infuses vitality into songs, enables interpreters and analysts to derive a collection of meanings rather than hold onto a single narrative. As he and his research collaborators demonstrate throughout Interpreting Court Song in Uganda: Musical Meaning, Power Relations, and Political Life, the process extends the life of a song by allowing new versions to proliferate from it. The book examines how lyric interpretation serves to renew the lives of twenty-one songs from the repertoires of royal court musicians of the Kingdom of Buganda, arguing that the meanings of these songs are not singular, static and monolithic but rather dynamic and multivalent.

Through extensive research and within past and present contexts, Kafumbe presents a series of unique perspectives on how Kiganda court songs reflect varied meanings of power relations. These meanings, which surface via lyric interpretation, come from daily interactions among everyday Ugandans and between leaders and subjects. Highlighting the relevance of court song lyrics to contemporary national contexts, this interpretive process helps illuminate truths and clarify myths about the power dynamics that shape political life in present-day Uganda. By engaging with the book's wide range of voices, readers will learn to appreciate these songs and their accompanying stories more fully, as extensions of their composers, performers, interpreters and contexts.

This book is available as Open Access under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.