Don't touch, just listen! popular performance from Uganda

Abstract

The power of ‘indigenous performance forms’ to mobilise popular energy and enthusiasm has led politicians, political activists and non‐government agencies in Africa and elsewhere to see them both as a threat and an opportunity. This article examines some of the ways in which ‘external’ actors have sought to harness ‐ and in the process either reinforce, redirect, or indeed at times to neutralise ‐ the power of popular expression. The first section examines the importance of indigenous performance in charting people's history and reflecting popular world views, and then identifies some of the ways in which governments, political activists and NGOs have appropriated it for their programmes. The second section presents examples from Uganda, which exemplify some of the issues around the use of popular forms of expression in the service of external agendas. In the discussion and conclusions we take issue with the concept of ‘indigenous performance’, and warn against assuming that ‘indigenous performances’ are automatically authentic in what they have to say. We also argue that the subversive elements of ‘indigenous performance’ are likely to be highly resilient to such manipulation. Just as external actors may abuse the form by imposing a foreign content, so local actors may play with an apparently innocuous form to transmit critical messages ‐ to a limited range of peers. In the light of these discussions, the pros and cons of politicians and NGOs using indigenous performance forms as a development communication strategy are assessed.

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