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Abstract
This article discusses the use of two forms of music by refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kampala, Uganda. With persisting violence in the DRC, and legal and physical insecurity in Kampala, the Congolese wish neither to return nor to remain in Uganda; pervasive mistrust and fear of other Congolese prevents the development of a “refugee community” in the city, and disqualifies it as a potential home. But through Gospel music in a Pentecostal church and rumba lingala in a Congolese bar create two limited environments in which contrasting forms of “home” may be imagined, and a fraught situation marginally ameliorated. In Gospel music the participants look forward to the heavenly home, in rumba the audience look back to Congo, and thus both of these manifestations of home raise the question of “continuity maintenance” in subtle ways, music being used both to remember certain elements of a former home and to forget others, creating spaces of comfort that can aid in coping with the past and the present. The significance and utilisation of each genre of music is notably dependent on its relative association with the Congolese nation and the position of that genre in Ugandan society. While taking comfort in such temporary senses of home experienced through music, refugees are unanimous in their desire to find a permanent home, defined by security, outside of both Uganda and Congo. Homes and communities created by music are fundamentally limited, yet powerful and invaluable in the temporary mitigation of suffering.
Acknowledgements
Dr. Hélène Neveu Kringelbach and Professor David Anderson provided invaluable guidance as my supervisors when this paper began life as a Master's dissertation, and in its transformation to an article. During fieldwork, Dr. Asiimwe Godfrey was most welcoming and helpful, and I am very thankful to my research assistant Zelda Sophie Namalkia, to the anonymous peer reviewers, and most especially to the many Congolese refugees who were so willing to discuss their lives, help in all my research and befriend me. I am particularly grateful to Emanuel Dunge, Joseph Batumike and the pastors and congregation of Victory International Evangelical Church for their exceptional generosity and warmth. I hope that my account and analysis reflects their lives and experience faithfully.
Notes
1. u-Lemba, La Chanson Congolaise Moderne, 26; my own translation.
2. Turton, “Meaning of Place,” 23, referring to Malkki, Purity and Exile; Hirschon, “Surpassing Nostalgia”; Parkin, “Mementoes”; Rodgers, “When Refugees Don't Go Home.”
3. Field research took place in March and April 2009, during preparation for my Master's dissertation on which this article is based; quotations below for which no other citation is given stem from the interviews and discussions held during this fieldwork.
4. Lammers, War, Refuge and Self, 28.
5. Clark, “Beyond Borders,” 104–8.
6. Refugee Law Project (RLP), “Refugees in the City,” 7–9; RLP, “Drop in the Ocean,” 15. It is notable that those with whom I have been in contact since the fieldwork were unaware of the passing of the new law, suggesting that although such legal progress is to be welcomed, it has as yet produced little impact on the lives of refugees in Kampala.
7. Some names have been changed throughout.
8. Rubbers, “We, the Congolese.”
9. Rubbers, “We, the Congolese.” 631.
10. Rubbers, “We, the Congolese.” 638.
11. Al-Ali and Koser, “Introduction”, 7.
12. Kibreab, “Revisiting the Debate”, 404.
13. Warner, “Deterritorialization and the Meaning of Space”, 413.
14. Notably unlike Amisi's report of Congolese arrivals in South Africa, “An Exploration of the Livelihood Strategies”, 26–30.
15. Rubbers, “We, the Congolese,” 631.
16. Bouillon, “Francophone African Migrants.”
17. The same recognition is recorded in Durban by Amisi, “Livelihood Strategies,” 28.
18. MacGaffey and Bazenguissa-Ganga, Congo-Paris.
19. Bender, Sweet Mother, 44–7.
20. Gifford, African Christianity, 32.
21. Marshall-Fratani, “Mediating the Global and Local.”
22. Mabika, La Chanson Congolaise, 27.
23. Mabika, La Chanson Congolaise, 27.
24. Mutara, “Memories through Congolese Music.”
25. Bender, Sweet Mother, 58.
26. Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity, and Music, 2; see also Seeger, Why Suyá Sing.
27. Baily, “Music and Refugee Lives,” 10.
28. Baily, “Music and Refugee Lives,” 10.
29. Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity, and Music, 12.
30. See, for example, the collection in Stokes, Ethnicity, Identity and Music.
31. Baily, “The Role of Music,” 59.
32. Baily, “Music and Refugee Lives.”
33. Baily, “Music and Refugee Lives.”, 11.
34. Baily, “Music and Refugee Lives.”, 12.
35. The Economist, “Rumba in the Jungle.”
36. u-Lemba, La Chanson Congolaise Moderne, 23.
37. White, “Congolese Rumba,” 664.
38. Kalumba and Abimanyi, “Good Old Days.”
39. Lomax, “Folk Song Style,” 929.
40. Gondola, “Dream and Drama,” 24; Fabian, “Popular Culture in Africa.”
41. It is an important note that while rumba has a special significance and is the most popular music amongst the Congolese, their love is not essentialist, nor exclusive of appreciation for foreign artists.
42. Marshall-Fratani, “Mediating the Global and Local,” 286.
43. Al-Ali and Koser, “Introduction,” 7.
44. Malkki, Purity and Exile.
45. Kibreab, “Revisiting the Debate.”
46. Landau, “Urban Refugees.”
47. A Franco-Swahili phrase used by many respondents, meaning “bad memory.”