Performing Arts and Gender in Postcolonial Western Uganda

Linda Cimardi's book explores the entanglement of traditional music, dance, and theater with gender and postcolonialism in Western Uganda, focusing on runyege, the main genre of the Banyoro and Batooro people. It examines the complex relationships between traditional performing arts and gender, and how stage conventions are exploited by some performers to negotiate their gender identities and expressions in unconventional ways. Audio and video recordings are available on the book's companion website.

Format: Hardback
Length: 302 pages
Publication date: 22 August 2023
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

The book "Runyege: Gender, Postcolonialism, and Traditional Music, Dance, and Theater in Western Uganda" by Linda Cimardi explores the intricate relationship between traditional performing arts and gender in Western Uganda. Through archival research and extensive fieldwork in the regions of Bunyoro and Tooro, Cimardi examines the connection between runyege, the main genre of the Banyoro and Batooro people, and gender. The book focuses on the various components of singing, instrument playing, dancing, and acting in runyege and identifies their complex relationships to gender models and expressions. Today, runyege is mainly performed at Ugandan school festivals and by semiprofessional ensembles, adhering to stage conventions that have developed over several decades. These conventions can be powerful devices for shaping an image of local culture grounded in a gender binary that is perceived as traditional. However, some performers also exploit these conventions to negotiate their gender identities and expressions in unconventional ways, thus challenging hegemonic gender models. The book engages in a comprehensive analysis of the postcolonial entanglement of arts and gender, drawing on historical recordings, oral accounts, and present-day fieldwork data and experiences. Audio and video recordings presented in the book can be accessed on the book's companion website, http://hdl.handle.net/1802/37373.

Weight: 1g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781648250323