The Ubuntu International Film Series: Community Music-Making & Meaning-Making Online
MSU Libraries in partnership with the Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program presents the Ubuntu International Film Series.
Ubuntu: a Zulu word translated as humanity that has become a global philosophical principle: “I am because we are.”
The two-week film series (Monday-Thursday) includes eight unique films from different global contexts. The film screenings will be followed by discussions with local and African experts who will explore global evocations of the concept of Ubuntu. The closing in-person screening and panel discussion is on April 3 at TBD.
All events are free and open to the public. Online registration is required to access the zoom events.
The film series is co-sponsored by the MSU Library, the African Studies Center, the Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities Program and the Institute for Ubuntu Thought and Practice. For more information contact Erik Ponder, the African Studies librarian: ponderer@msu.edu
Click here for the full film series schedule.
- Date:
- Monday, March 24, 2025 Show more dates
- Time:
- 12:00pm - 2:00pm
- Time Zone:
- Eastern Time - US & Canada (change)
- Online:
- This is an online event. Event URL will be sent via registration email.
Image Credit: Lauren Parnell Marino
Film: Community Music-Making & Meaning-Making (Ndere Troupe, Uganda: 20 minutes)
This screening comprises two community music-making performances by the Ndere Troupe, a cultural development organization based in Kampala, Uganda. Founded in 1984, the Ndere Troupe performs a repertoire of more than 40 context-situated songs and dances with the goal of salvaging, preserving, and celebrating Africa’s indigenous civilizations; promoting inter-ethnic and cross-national unity; and providing edutainment through storytelling, music, and drama. The first performance, from Busoga, Eastern Uganda, features a locally constructed keyboard and demonstrates the value of individual contributions to making melody. In as much as one cannot play all the keys alone, the set up does not allow one key or one musician to dominate or eclipse other keys and other musicians. Instead, each person makes their unique contribution while making room for the contributions of others. The second performance comes from North West Uganda (West Nile)—where Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo converge, and many different cultures intersect. It features an extended complex interlocking melody composed to address the tensions emanating from the region’s cultural diversity. Each musician plays only one pitch on a locally constructed trumpet (the Agwara). As much as each person is responsible for blowing their pitch when it is required in the progression of the melody, they should also make room for others to blow their pitch when it is their turn. Both performances rest on relational logics, the core tenet of Ubuntu: collective humanity and interdependence.
Discussant: Dr. Upenyu Majee (Michigan)
Inaugural Director of the Institute of Ubuntu Thought and Practice (IUTP) at Michigan State University. He holds a joint PhD in Educational Policy Studies and Development Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He previously served as 1) Project Manager for Ubuntu Dialogues, a 2019-2023 collaboration between MSU and Stellenbosch University (South Africa), funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and 2) Faculty Lead for the Reeves Scholars Program, a reciprocal exchange between teacher candidates at MSU and at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research interests and work include internationalization and global engagement in higher education, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, and institutional and knowledge decolonization.