Kizino Dance-Musicking as a Living Archive of Place Identities Among Bakiga Immigrants in Rubirizi, Western Uganda

This paper examines Kizino dance-musicking as a living archive through which Bakiga immigrants in Rubirizi, Western Uganda, construct, express, and negotiate place identities. Kizino dance-musicking refers to the interdependent performance of Kizino music and dance of the Bakiga, encompassing the context, costume, movement, sounds, and their meanings. Having migrated from the Kigezi sub-region and settled in Rubirizi in the 1940s and 1950s, the Bakiga draw on Kizino dance-musicking as a tool to preserve their sense of origin and belonging in the new environment. Through the texts of the dance songs, Kizino dance-musicking encodes place-based narratives by referencing Kabale, the ancestral homeland of the Bakiga. However, there is inadequate scholarly information on Kizino dance-musicking as a living archive through which communities maintain ties to place while simultaneously redefining their identities in the new environment. Drawing on in-depth interviews and document analysis, I examine how Kizino dance-musicking encapsulates memories of place and the reimagination of 'home' among the Bakiga immigrants in Rubirizi. The study emphasises the view that Kizino dance-musicking is not only a form of cultural expression, but also a critical tool for sustaining cultural memory and place identity among people who have resettled from their homeland.