The Melodious Melting of Misunderstanding and Confusion: Why the University of Tennessee is in Uganda

July 17, 2007

Now that I’ve arrived in Kampala, it’s time to get down to business. Our project is so complex, so I’ll try to clarify all of the various dimensions of what we’re doing here. George is trying to sell it as a package to his contacts by saying “look at the interdisciplinary approach UTK (not just “UT” which stands for Uganda Time, which is typically a bit late) is taking to Uganda.” In a way, we are ambassadors for the University of Tennessee and for the Knoxville area musicians.

The easiest way I know how to explain what we are doing is by creating 3 main categories under which we are operating.

1.University of TN- creating institutional linkages
2. Knoxville Jazz for Justice- promoting music as a key element to healing Northern Uganda
3. Personal Networking- seeking opportunities for Erin and I by way of internships, jobs, and contacts for research in our College Scholars disciplines

Keep in mind that there are many overlaps both with ideologies, goals, and people. Everything is interconnected.

Our #1 objective is to promote the idea that music heals. We are striving to use music and the arts as peacebuilding, music to overcome the marginalization of the north, music as a means of reduction of the conflict between the north and the south. We try to always bring it back to music, and that is what makes the Knoxville Jazz for Justice project unique. We especially like jazz because of its improvisational nature which is so key to achieving sustainable peace in a post-conflict era.

Now for our specific objectives under the 3 main categories.

University of Tennessee

1. Janani Luwum Institute of Development Studies, Gulu, Uganda
We are visiting this new institute in Gulu to create a linkage with it and the University of Tennessee. We envision sending UTK professors to lecture at IDS on cutting-edge approaches to development and sending students to study and obtain internships. Hopefully the linkage would operate both ways and scholars and students from IDS could in turn be hosted at UTK. This site-visit is sponsored by the Center for International Education and the Ready for the World initiative. Columbia University in New York City is already building a partnership with the Janani Luwum Institute.




2. International Service Learning

We would like to use the experiences of this trip to encourage the UTK Center for International Education to promote international service learning in Africa. During our time in Uganda, we plan to collect pamphlets and contact information for organizations in Uganda to place in the volunteer and work abroad folders in the study abroad office at UTK. Last spring I was looking to study abroad in Africa, and I found that the only two study abroad programs which were comparable to UTK’s tuition were in Ghana and South Africa, leaving out all of North and East Africa. Because of the development in Africa, a growing number of undergraduate students would like to take a hands-on approach and participate in international volunteer or internship experiences in those countries. Hopefully, the internship opportunities at the Janani Luwum Institute of Development Studies could be the pilot, institutionally-sponsored project for a University of Tennessee International Service Learning Program.

3. Peace and Development Studies

This is my biggest personal aspiration for the University of Tennessee. When exploring majors, I realized that UTK offers just about everything I could think of in regards of a major… everything except what I really wanted to study- Peace. So I applied to College Scholars- an honors individual, interdiscinplinary major in which I have designed my own concentration- and took that route, but a large majority of students either aren’t eligible for College Scholars or don’t know about it. I envision creating a Peace and Development Studies program, perhaps interdisciplinary like Global Studies, for the increasing number of college and high school students interested in peace and development. We are using this trip to build a case to the administration regarding the student interest and growing necessity for study in these areas. Yesterday we met the Vice Chancellor (equivalent to President Peterson in the UT system) of Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and partnership could be available between UTK and Makerere to build a Peace and Development Program. UTK already has a library linkage with Makerere University, and I met Maria, head librarian, when she visited Knoxville in the spring.

4. UTK College of Nursing, Disaster Response and Homeland Security Program

The only program in the country which specializes in disaster response nursing in the US is at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, so students from around the country are flocking to UTK to enroll. We have a sealed letter from the College of Nursing to deliver on Thursday to the Ugandan Minister of Health and the Minister of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees. That letter invites continued communication between the University of Tennessee and the two, hoping to soon create a linkage.

Knoxville Jazz for Justice Project

1. Northern Uganda Girls Education Network

In October 2006 we held the first Knoxville Jazz for Justice benefit concert to support a Ugandan NGO run by influential, inspiring Ugandan women. We raised more than $5000 to help them best support girls in communities affected by the war. We are researching ways music education can help rehabilitate the children. During this visit, we are meeting with the Board of Directors, patrons of NUGEN, and children supported to help us to learn more about their needs and how as supporters we can grow with them into the future. Some of the girls even call themselves “University of Tennessee girls” because of our sponsorship and dedication to raising awareness in the United States about the situation in Northern Uganda. In Gulu, we are visiting 2 secondary schools to meet more students sponsored by NUGEN. An exciting aspect evolving from this trip is we are
organizing a penpal program with Webb High School and UTK in Knoxville so that upon return to America we can build personal relationships with survivors needing an outlet for support and encouragement. In the future we also hope to sponsor girls to the US for a secondary education at Webb and an undergraduate education at UTK.

2. Musicians

A) Acholi Heart Beat
Our dream for the 2nd Annual Knoxville Jazz for Justice concert to be held November 2, 2007 is to have more African and African-American musicians, most importantly musicians from Northern Uganda. This group, the Acholi Heart Beat, is comprised of refugees and former child soldiers and has been performing together for the last few years, and we hope to organize a small US tour for the fall to universities and colleges in the Southern United States. Because I am the South’s Regional Coordinator for Washington, DC-based NGO Resolve Uganda’s newly launched student movement, I plan to encourage the groups under my jurisdiction to have performances of Acholi Heart Beat on their campuses. We believe Acholi Heart Beat is worthy of such exposure in the United States because they are diligently working to preserve their Acholi culture (which has been largely compromised because of the resettlement in the IDP camps and the 21 years of conflict) through means of song and dance. The Acholi Heart Beat is an avenue for the Acholi to utilize the voices of survivors and to promote a hope for the future of their people. We will be seeing them perform in Gulu, so we have footage to share with the administration of the campuses we hope sponsor their US visit. This traditional dance group is run by Dr. Phoebe Abe.

B) High School Music Contest

A newly planned endeavor, we will be visiting Gulu High School and Sacred Heart High School, both with students supported by NUGEN, to launch a creative contest in which we hope to foster the composition and performance of music and dance among youth in Northern Uganda. We will be promoting a trial contest this week where 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes will be given to students who demonstrate creativity and innovation in song and dance with an emphasis on the northern girl’s struggle and peace and reconciliation. We hope to use the success of this contest to advertise on FM stations a major contest in the coming months with monetary prizes and exposure in the US. More to be announced.

C) IDP Camp Musicians

For the last 10 years, more than 1.3 million Acholi have been displaced from their homes and sent to live in Internally Displaced Persons camps scattered around the north. What began as a way to protect the Acholi from the rebels has caused unintentional consequences including lack of food, lack of resources, loss of culture, and death. At its peak, more than 1000 Acholi were dying a week in the IDP camps. We will visit camps with a Norwegian NGO, seeking upcoming musicians in Acholiland to record. We are planning to include Acholi musicians on next KJfJ compilation CD with proceeds going back to those musicians. We also are investigating and interviewing ways in which music survives and/or thrives in conflict situations, both topics of interest to Erin and I in our College Scholars concentrations. Joshua Russell has brought a professional camcorder and audio recorder to capture what we see and hear. We will be creating a DVD with musical performances that we see to be used once we return to the US. The artists will be featured at the Knoxville Jazz for Justice benefit, on the concert’s DVD, and in stateside talks to help supplement our discussions on the power of music in healing Northern Uganda.

3. Instruments
In addition to NUGEN, we are in close contact with the Catholic Archbishop of Gulu, John Baptist Odama. In past e-mails with us, he has been very anxious to receive instruments for the children under his jurisdiction. He supports our idea that music and dance promotes psycho-social healing, something that we fear has been largely neglected.
During this site-visit we will see where we can send musical instruments to be used by kids in north for this psycho-social healing. We’re seeking if traditional or Western instruments are desired. Perhaps, a combination of both. We from KJfJ are all very eager to support those Acholi striving to preserve their traditional culture.

4. Media

Uganda is famous for its radio FM stations, and we will be appearing in several outlets in Kampala and Gulu. One man in Gulu, Denis, used to be on Mega FM (a station broadcasted to the IDP camps), and Rosalind Hackett interviewed with him in 2004 during her previous visit to Uganda. Denis obtained a master’s at Notre Dame, and now that he is back in radio in Gulu, we hope to appear on radio stations there and discuss the role of music in peacecbuilding. Another key person for interviewing on how music is being used in north is Peter, the former Editor-in-Chief at the Monitor newspaper. We hope to question him on how the media is covering the Juba Peace Talks and the conflict over the last 21 years.


Personal Networking

While on this trip to Uganda, Erin and I will be networking with organizations and individuals with whom we can work or intern in the future. Erin and I will be returning January 2008 to spend a semester with organizations here in Uganda. We will also be looking for connections for our upcoming research for our College Scholars senior theses. In addition, upon the conclusion of this trip, we have research papers due to the University of Tennessee offices sponsoring our Uganda site-visit. I received funding from the Office of Research and the Center for International Education. Erin’s portion of this site-visit was supported by the Wright Chancellor’s Scholarship Study Abroad Stipend. We are very grateful for our sponsorship and are anxious to produce scholarly papers reflecting all that we have learned.

Here are my notes so far on what I would like to keep in mind over the next two weeks as possibilities for my research paper.

-Uganda’s historical memory and its role in the present tension between the north and south
- the tension between the International Criminal Court and traditional justice
- how the Acholi are helping themselves
the future of the Acholi in the wake of demarginalization by the rest of Uganda
-MUSIC AND THE ARTS AS PEACEBUILDING
-psycho-social healing’s place in healing individuals and communities in the north
+how is music a part of Acholi culture?
+incorporate what I saw
+NGO approaches
+elders’ approaches
-how music brings people together
-how politics of music keep the north and south apart

I have so many things I want to write about and research heavily, I don’t even know where to begin!