When we want to bring back memories of different times and places in our lives and the lives of those we know and love, music is one of the most powerful and immediate tools we have available. We can just consult our vinyl, CD collection or streaming service and the songs we connect with will be at our fingertips.
But in cultures where songs are traditionally shared orally between older and younger generations, what happens to the music when communities are dispersed and have to migrate and adjust to neighbouring countries?
In South Sudan, many people have been forced to leave the country due to the impact of years of war, conflicts and the effects of climate disasters such as floods and drought. Due to the dislocation from their ancestral lands, the length of displacement due to the wars and the widening intergenerational gap, many South Sudanese women living in refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya have become disconnected from their cultural heritage and without intervention it is at risk of being lost.
The Likikiri Collective, a South Sudanese NGO, is working to address these issues of cultural disconnection in a project called ‘Storytelling as Safeguarding: Protecting South Sudanese Women’s Cultural Heritage in Refugee Settings in Uganda and Kenya’, supported by the Cultural Protection Fund.
Named after the term for stories in Bari, a language spoken across several of the 64 communities in South Sudan, the Likikiri Collective uses the arts and humanities, cultural heritage and creativity to work with communities on social issues.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the project, Rebecca Lorins, the co-founder of the Likikiri Collective says:
“We have noticed that development work tends to look at what people lack, and then to provide things to fill that deficit. Our approach is to look at what assets communities already have – in this case, their songs - and to build on those assets in order to strengthen those communities.”
Together with Likikiri’s partner organisations - Community Development Centre in Arua, Uganda and SheLeads Kakuma in Kenya - Likikiri Heritage Lab aims to record, transcribe, translate and share 400 previously undocumented, traditional songs. These will cover key moments from a woman’s life in South Sudan - early childhood, transition to adulthood, marriage, work and death.
The team began their work by recreating traditional story circles with a total of 20 elder and 20 younger South Sudanese refugee women from four communities - the Avokaya and Kakwa in Uganda and Dinka and Nuer in Kenya – all of whom have separate languages and cultural heritages and some of whom have previously been in conflict.
Each story circle covers a different moment from South Sudanese women’s lives and gives young women taking part in the project the opportunity to ask questions as they learn from their elders about the wisdom, knowledge and stories contained within each song.
Barnabas Samuel, the lead for the project in Uganda, says that each of the story circles is a unique experience which often attracts an audience:
“The songs, stories and experiences shared by our elders are so rich that they help to transport our participants and the people living nearby to another place – it’s almost like virtual reality!
The story circles often cause great interest and excitement locally in the settlements and it’s great to see when participants and audience members are inspired to share what they’ve seen and heard with their friends and families.”
Once they are recorded, transcribed and translated, the project plans to have the 400 South Sudanese traditional songs globally accessible at the British Library's Sound Archive (World and Traditional Music Collection) and with the communities in East Africa. Collections will also be present in Uganda and Kenya and at the Likikiri Library in Juba as well as in community archives and cultural centres in South Sudan.
The participants are receiving training in song documentation, archiving and media production, not only allowing them to safeguard their cultural heritage for future generations, but also enhancing their potential for employment.
The young women’s media literacy will be further enhanced with the creation of 10 project podcasts, where they can reflect on the songs they have been collecting, what they have learned from their elders and what they think about their experience.
Achol Ng'or Maketh, the deputy lead for the project in Kenya, feels that the connections being made between the four communities taking part in the project give participants hope for the future. She says:
“Human memory depends on reinforcement and without projects like this, these songs from our country would simply be forgotten. Reconnecting to your cultural roots gives you a sense of identity and pride and I hope that more opportunities like this are allocated to refugees.
This project has given us a chance to unite and work together as communities that come from South Sudan, fostering peace among ourselves. One day, if we happen to go back home, we are going to work as a more united nation.”
