Defending Kakraba: Promoting Intercultural Curiosity

Abstract

An earlier article of mine introducing the question of how African speakers of tone languages may audit instrumental music played by their own traditional musicians was criticised as a piece of ‘colonial essentialism’ by the African musicologist Kofi Agawu in his writings on ‘Representing African Music’. This response presents more biographical information on the Ghanaian master musician Kakraba Lobi, along with a discussion of the findings of other scholars who researched the music of his instrument, the gyil. Further evidence from Uganda on instrumental representation of music is then provided, lending weight to the argument that Ugandan instrumentalists habitually communicate texts embedded within their musical performances. The final section suggests that there is a consequent need to research not only how composers incorporate texts but also how their listeners experience such instrumental performance. It ends by reiterating the need for enquiry among listeners in partnership with careful analysis and observation of the musicking that they audit.