Lugbara music

Lugbara music can be performed using various traditional instruments. Adungu is a multi-stringed and bow-arched wooden instrument that is usually covered with animal hide at the base and made in various sizes, the smaller ones are handheld while the bigger ones rest on the ground or floor for easy play. Most tribes in Northern Uganda use it. Agwara is a local trumpet. Guke, a trumpet is used by men and boys in most of their dance. Luru is the Lugbara end blow trumpet made from a bottle shaped gourd. Mare is the side-blown trumpet made from a gourd and a wooden tube. It is blown through the hole in the gourd with the wooden tube pointing downward or under the left arm. Bees wax is smeared inside the gourd which is wetted before it is played, only at death dances. Naito is the special drum used in union with this funeral trumpet, but the general Lugbara name for a drum is ari.

There are various kinds of Lugbara dances. Agwara is a dance from the Lugbara and Kebu^[1] in the West Nile, bordering the Congo and the Sudan. The dance got its name from agwara, a local trumpet. The men play these horns as the women dance. Duluka which means 'dance' in Nubian language, is considered another Lugbara dance, a community and tourist attraction where music can even be played on banana stems. Gaze is a traditional dance of the Lugbara people. This youthful dance reflects the transition of the bodily movements into the style of their neighbors in the Congo and is spreading across Uganda.^[2] Mbiri is known among the Madi. Nambi is performed mostly by young people during traditional marriage. Oseke is for the Kebu.^[3] Otwenge which literally means 'elbow' is another folk dance among the Kebu and Lugbara.^[4] It involves the raising of elbow joints, also performed by Alur. Costumes used in these dances include animal skins, feathers, grass skirts and shells.