Approaches to the fusion of Enanga of the Bakiga of South-Western Uganda with popular music

Abstract

This study is in the field of Applied Ethnomusicology. It addresses issues of traditional music, technology and popular music. Like other traditional Kikiga music, enanga is steadily vanishing from the community’s music scene. Most of the old people who knew how to play this instrument have died and those still alive are not full-time musicians. The purpose of this study was to inves-tigate ways through which enanga music performance can be fused through technology to popu-larize it among popular music audiences. This study adopted a qualitative research methodology with three approaches of ethnography/fieldwork, action research and content analysis. Moreover, it revolved around two theories of globalization, and progressive traditionalism. The findings of this study show that enanga was part and parcel of the social, economic, religious and political Kikiga lifestyle of the Bakiga. However, times have changed and the instrument is disappearing from the public. The study further reveals that studio technology can facilitate fusion through sampling, live recording, designing studio sound to imitate enanga sound and using enanga music themes in different popular music genres. It is hoped that the findings of this study will be beneficial to popular musicians since they will understand ways through which enanga music can be merged with popular music through studio technology to create new sounds.