In Kawuugulu, musical performance, storytelling, and politics coexist as elements of a whole. Drumming, singing, and dancing work in tandem with human and non-human stories to manage, structure, model, and legitimize power relations in Buganda—to “tune” the kingdom. These power relations involve different actors, whom the ensemble connects and distinguishes. Kawuugulu operates in a sort of equilibrium, mediating kinship, clanship, and kingship in a way that mirrors Kiganda sociopolitical realities. The ensemble's ability to integrate musical performance, storytelling, and politics and to exemplify the overlapping and dialogic nature of these domains make Kawuugulu a performative constitution of polysemic importance (see figure 5.1). By “performative constitution” I mean a constellation of sound and non-sound instruments, songs, dances, and stories through which the ensemble sustains a sociopolitical hierarchy that interweaves and balances kin and clan ties in delicate tension with royal prerogatives. This constitution remains alive as long as Kawuugulu performs, as my analysis of an illustrative event in the following sections will demonstrate.

A Kawuugulu Music and Dance Event

June 8, 2008: I am attending a betrothal, or pre-wedding introduction, ceremony of the daughter of the current Butiko Clan head, the ggunju. The young woman is introducing her prospective groom to members of her family, who gather at her father's home in Lugala. The ceremony features a Kawuugulu performance, which opens with a single drummer playing the clan's official mubala, a melo-rhythmic pattern with an associated textual phrase, on the Kijoboje clan identity drum. The mubala goes Weekirikijje; ggunju ajja (“Prepare yourself in joyful anticipation; the ggunju is coming”; see ex. 1.1). The performer draws the attention of his audience first by playing initial drum strokes to the accompaniment of a loud yell, yaaaaa! He then performs the rhythmic pattern of the mubala as he chants its corresponding verbal interpretations. His performance is followed by the first section of Kawuugulu's performance, “Kaaciica,” part of which is illustrated in example 5.1.

The player of the ensemble's principal drums, Kawuugulu and Kasajja, opens “Kaaciica” with rapid drum strokes, which instruct all ensemble members to prepare for their individual performance roles.