Nyege Nyege Tapes’s electronic re-interpretation of Ugandan courtship songs

Nyege Nyege Tapes’s most recent release, Electro Acholi Kaboom from Northern Uganda, brings light to a style of music from 2003 to 2008 in the northern Ugandan cities of Lira and Gulu. The Acholi people are a nation of Luo people who live in South Sudan and northern Uganda. During traditional Acholi courtship, different dances are performed to give the men an opportunity to demonstrate their physical prowess to the women. However, the Larakara has morphed over time and is now played at wedding ceremonies to celebrate the marriage of a couple. Larakaraka bands require large groups of people for instrumentation, and during the early 2000s, these electronic re-interpretations of Larakaraka songs emerged as an alternative to the expensive full bands due to a shortage in manpower which was a result of the ongoing civil war in northern Uganda. The re-interpreted songs soon became popular at local clubs and still play a prominent part in the nightlife of Lira and Gulu. The songs on this compilation are from 2003 to 2008 and feature some of the most popular artists from the genre.

The producers of these songs use traditional Larakaraka sounds like percussion, ankle-bells, and calabashes, which are a type of hollowed-out gourd played as a percussion instrument. There are also liberties taken, like faster tempos, which can be heard on all the songs in this compilation, and call and response vocals, which can be heard prominently on songs like “Awinyo Bila” and “Rwot Moo.” My favorite song on the compilation featuring this added call and response vocal part is “Tum Pa Ocii” by Jeff Korondo. The percussion used on the beat for this song reminds me a lot of early 2000s French-Polynesion electronic music, which I thought was interesting given that Uganda is a landlocked country. Korondo was one of the most prominent vocalists in the scene of the early 2000s.

Almost all of the songs on the compilation are upbeat and cheerful, and use major chords with bright synths and samples. My favorite song on the compilation, “Bandera Pa Kaka” by Bosmic Otim, is by far one of the happiest African Electronic songs I’ve heard in a while, and the infectious call and response of the line “bandera pa kaka” put a smile on my face the entire time. The use of acoustic instrumentation on this song makes it one of the most enjoyable for me on the compilation. Although his song on the compilation is upbeat, Bosmic Otim uses his music for political activism. For almost two decades now, Otim has been playing across Uganda and singing about AIDS, domestic abuse, alcoholism, and corruption in the government. Otim is a huge celebrity in Uganda and is one of the pioneers of this genre. Music as activism is a large part of Acholi culture, and Otim is no exception. In a 2008 interview by The Brooklyn Rail, Otim had this to say: “But ours is not through guns. Our guns are the microphones. The mic is the biggest weapon.” Otim represents a generation of Ugandans who are tired of war and are using music as activism in the 21st century.