Help raise funds to build drums for Kakuma Refugee Camp

The project's goal is to reconnect refugees from Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia and the DRC with their traditional instruments and enable them to make music and earn a living as performers.

In a post published on the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform, University of California professor Mark LeVine, who is a co-founder of Kakuma Sound, said the project “will focus especially on acclimating the Burundian and other children in the camp who've never even seen, never mind played, actual karyenda drums (they've been forced to use rusty used oil barrels that are both dangerous and too heavy to use in the traditional manner).

“The more communities can be reconnected with their home cultures through their traditional music and instruments, the stronger their foundations will be in the camp, and the greater the possibilities of creative intercommunal collaboration.”

LeVine said professional Burundian drummers and drum makers based in Kigali, Rwanda, would be commissioned to make 12 drums. The professional drummers will then hold a weeklong workshop and a final concert with Burundian refugees at the camp.

“After acquiring a baseline of training, the drummers will continue practicing and performing, while doing regular Skype meetings and lessons with the visiting drummers, to prepare them to travel to Uganda to perform at Nyege Nyege Festival in Jinja, Uganda, in September 2020, which will mark the first time many of the drummers have ever left Kakuma,” he said.

In 2017, Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced that women would not be allowed to beat the royal drum. The news was received with hostility from many Burundians who saw the decision as a major setback for women’s rights in the country.

Speaking to Music In Africa, LeVine said: “That is not the case in the camp. All instruments brought to the camp as part of the project will be available for any camp resident to use and study.

Asked what the goals of the Kakuma Sound project were, LeVine said: “The two primary goals of the project are to reunite refugees with core elements of their cultural heritage and history through the traditional instruments that could rarely, if ever, accompany them when they fled, and to help create creative hubs where the numerous artists in Kakuma and other camps can use the incorporation of traditional instruments into existing music structures to create new and innovative sounds and styles.”

LeVine said the fundraising project would end at the beginning of May, while the instrument-building phase would begin in June.

The project's budget is $15 000 and will facilitate:

• The building of 12 drums.
• Transportation of drums and musicians overland from Rwanda to the camp in Kenya.
• Accommodation, food, local transport equipment, room rentals and miscellaneous expenses at Kakuma Refugee Camp.

Kakuma Refugee Camp is known for its high concentraton of musical talent. Celebrated musicians from Kakuma Refugee Camp include South Sudan's Emmanuel Jaal and Nyaruach. The two artists were last year nominated for a Juno Award in Canada under the World Music Album of the Year category for their joint 2018 offering Naath (Humans).

Support the Kakuma Sound project here.