The Music of a Senator Performance

Abstract

In the introduction, I highlighted the deep historical importance, in the east African region, of the ng’oma complex. “Ng’oma,” in Bantu languages, means “drum” or “dance event,” but these definitions do not adequately capture the breadth of the concept. Historically, ng’oma has had profound social implications; it is a major “institution” (Janzen 1992) by which east African communities have known and shaped themselves, according to an understood moral social order. The ng’oma focus of the Extravaganza meant that this event kindled the imagination of a “traditional” social world many Ugandans believe exists alongside the “modern” one. This sphere of tradition is believed to be based on a fundamentally different set of social values and expectations than modernity’s. For example, in the moral scheme of “tradition,” making money is thought to be less important than raising one’s own food on one’s own plot of land (Whyte and Kyaddondo 2006). More profoundly, in “tradition” the self-actualization of individuals is not seen as an autonomous process, prior to the formation of society, as it is in more individualist strains of liberalism. Rather, self-fulfillment is understood predominantly in social terms; one receives a good reputation (in Luganda, ekitiibwa) from others, to whom one is bonded in relationships of reciprocal obligation (Karlström 2003; Scherz 2014).