Uganda: Ban on wood-cutting silencing royal drums
December 19th, 2009
Kampala (Uganda) - Paul Kyuma Mukwaya is an exponent of a grand tradition threatened by conservation laws.
He makes Baganda’s royal drums — from hardwood that can no longer be legally harvested from protected indigenous forests.
At one of his craft shops in Busega, six miles west of Kampala, Mukwaya strolls to a corner and carefully picks up a bulky package, wrapped in a clean cream cloth.
It’s a drum. Fastening it around his neck using a thin leather strap, he grabs two sticks placed atop the drum.
The room falls silent as he plays the Buganda kingdom royal announcement.
“Gwe ngo. Gwe musota. Gwe ngo. Gwe musota…
(You are the leopard. You are the snake. You are the leopard. You are the snake…)
Mukwaya — the Buganda kingdom royal drummer, the Omugoma wa Kabaka — says: “This is the song I perform in the presence of the Kabaka of Buganda, when he is opening or closing the kingdom’s parliament (lukiiko). Or when the Kabaka is visiting his subjects.
“The sound of the drum scares away evil spirits and helps the Kabaka live longer.”
He adds: “The Toro kingdom also has a couple of revered drums, namely kajumba and nyalebe.
Kajumba occupies the chief position. “It is a very small drum with simple W-lacing,” write Margaret Trowel and K.P Wachsmann in their book, Tribal Crafts of Uganda.
“The Omukama (King) touches kajumba when it is handed to him and only when he has played it is the big drum set, butwarane, of the important Mpango — the anniversary of a king’s coronation — expected to open up.
For this reason, kajumba is sometimes referred to as butwarane.
Nyalebe is a small, ancient-looking drum...” add Trowel and Wachsmann.
Mukwaya owns the Sikyomu Drum Makers craft shops in Busega.
One feels like a king, just listening to his majestic beat.
Mukwaya is from the Mbogo (buffalo) clan in Buganda and is an assistant of the Buganda royal musical storekeeper and drummer (Kawula).
The duties performed by the Mbogo clan include; being drivers of the king, soldiers/guards (bambowa), royal chief brewers and gate keepers.
Mukwaya learnt his trade from his late father Kabunga Leonald Busimba.
He has passed on the skills to his children and many other people.
He sold royal drums to the Toro kingdom for the coronation ceremony of King Oyo Nyimba Iguru.
Mukwaya is so masterful at his craft that he makes traditional drums for clients in South Africa and Kenya, the Senegalese Djembe drum, xylophones, flutes and stringed instruments.
Mukwaya performs at Buganda royal events and clan meetings.
“I have documented over 600 drums in Buganda kingdom, each with its own unique sound. People should treasure their culture.”
Mukwaya criticises the current laws that bar harvesting of trees by woodcarvers, even on private land.
This compounds the silent conflict between woodcarvers and conservationists.
“We are not allowed to cut down trees in private forests without permission from the authorities. Why should I not be allowed to cut a tree I planted on my farm?
“And why are commercial loggers permitted to cut down entire forests?”
Mukwaya’s other craft shop is in Mbabire trading centre, 25 miles south of Kampala, on Masaka Road.
Conservation authorities have reason to be concerned because the country loses an average 86,000 hectares of trees a year.
73,000 hectares are lost to rapid tree-cutting on private land, outside government-protected areas, while 7,000 hectares are lost in protected areas like forest reserves.
Forest reserves are held in trust for the people of Uganda and managed by the National Forest Authority.
In the 1970s, forests covered 40 per cent of Uganda.
Between 1990 and 2005, Uganda lost 26.3 per cent of its remaining forest cover.
Deforestation continues today at a rate of 2.2 per cent per year, mostly due to subsistence farming, cutting for firewood, and encroachment by a burgeoning population.
Uganda is likely to have very low, if any, forest cover within 50 years if nothing is done to reverse this trend, warns the forest authority.
According to the conservation organisation Fauna & Flora International, people and the environment are often trapped together in a downward spiral.
Impoverished communities usually consume the few natural resources available, resulting in greater poverty, deforestation, degraded soils, polluted water, disease and environmental crisis.
Drum making among the Baganda uses four types of hard and strong wood: omukebu (Cordia Africana), enoongo (Albizia), akabalira (Ficus mucuso) and omugavu (Albizia coriaria).
According to a music lecturer at Kyambogo University, Simeo Sebufu: “Because these trees can grow only in the protected forests, drum makers either have to force their way there or bribe forest rangers to gain access.”
As a general rule, the drums are beaten with bare hands, mostly by men.
The exceptions are in Ganda, where women play the drums in an enclosure in the tomb of Kabaka Suna.
And in Acholi, where women play the drums during consultations with ajwaka, a priest of Jok.
As some tree species take a mere five years to mature, farmers are growing them on their private land.
Mukwaya says he has six acres of natural tree plantations.
On harvesting the logs, he ferries them in the night to elude conservation authorities.
He has been playing and making drums since he was 10.
“We don’t over-exploit trees; it’s the charcoal burners and the timber dealers who do that,” he says.
Fast maturing trees such as the jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), commonly known as ffene, omukokowe (ficus ovata), emitubba (Ficus natalensis) and ssettala (Polyscias fulva) are now being used to make drums also, but they are not as good.
Sebufu says, “these trees are not good for drum making. Their wood is light and that affects the sound of the drum, unlike hard wood such as enoongo (Albizia).
“They don’t last long and are easily eaten by insects; they easily break or develop cracks after a fall.”
Mukwaya and Sebufu say unscrupulous drum makers use very poor wood. “They mislead customers about the quality of the drum.”
source.The East African (Kenya) - December 14, 2009.