Home, music and memory for the Congolese in Kampala

Abstract

This article discusses the use of two forms of music by refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Kampala, Uganda. With persisting violence in the DRC, and legal and physical insecurity in Kampala, the Congolese wish neither to return nor to remain in Uganda; pervasive mistrust and fear of other Congolese prevents the development of a ?refugee community? in the city, and disqualifies it as a potential home. But through Gospel music in a Pentecostal church and rumba lingala in a Congolese bar create two limited environments in which contrasting forms of ?home? may be imagined, and a fraught situation marginally ameliorated. In Gospel music the participants look forward to the heavenly home, in rumba the audience look back to Congo, and thus both of these manifestations of home raise the question of ?continuity maintenance? in subtle ways, music being used both to remember certain elements of a former home and to forget others, creating spaces of comfort that can aid in...