Authentic Voices Africa: Sounds of Maracha
An installation and performance exploring the traditional music, movements and oral narratives of the Maracha clan of the Lugbara people in the West Nile region of Uganda.
For generations, the knowledge, beliefs, stories, rituals and musical practices of the Maracha people have been transmitted primarily through oral tradition. As younger generations experience increasing social and cultural change, opportunities to encounter and engage with this inherited knowledge are becoming less frequent.
Through video and audio recordings of the Prime Minister of the Lugbara Kaari, cultural leaders, musical ensembles and sites of spiritual significance to the clan, Authentic Voices Africa brings together a body of material that documents and interprets this cultural inheritance.
Part historical record and part contemporary artistic response, Sounds of Maracha considers how knowledge carried through generations can be documented, experienced and reinterpreted without losing its connection to the people, places and practices from which it originates.
The installation creates a space in which ancestral voices and contemporary perspectives meet, exploring how this cultural knowledge might continue to resonate with future generations.
Location
AfricaMuseum, Auditorium
Program
- 13:15 – 14:15 Part 1: Maracha Visual Installation
An immersive audio visual presentation exploring the history, landscape, songs, stories, dances and significant places of the Lugbara Maracha people. The one hour work unfolds across three walls of the auditorium, surrounding the audience with an evolving portrait of Maracha culture and heritage.
- 14:15 – 14:45 Part 2: Ritual
A 30 minute ritual that blurs the boundaries between installation and live performance, drawing on the narratives, traditions and spiritual heritage of the Lugbara people. It brings together the spiritual and fire traditions associated with the Maracha clan, where the woman who gave birth to the culture first lived, and the Terego clan, from where the first man migrated before crossing into the West Nile.
- 14:45 – 15:45 Part 3: A\V/A
A one hour live performance presenting an electronic interpretation of the musical traditions and sonic heritage of the Maracha clan and Lugbara people. Combining ancestral source material with contemporary technology, the work presents Africa not only through its history and heritage, but as a place of innovation, experimentation and of the future.
Free event by registration
Registration soon available