Songs of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda



Notes

The Abayudaya music you are listening to was recorded by Kohavim Tikvah, the youth singing group of the Abayudaya Congregation. Every week on Sabbath, Kohavim Tikvah comes together to sing for the community. The guitar-player and community leader, Gershom Sizomu, is nicknamed "rabbi" by the community. His name is "Rabbi Gershom Sizomu" on his Ugandan passport, and his dream is to study for the rabbinate. He needs your help to make this community dream a reality.

This particular tape was recorded on 2 December 1992 in Mbale, Uganda. Matthew Meyer and Julia Chamovitz, two American students who visited the community in November of that year, received the tape as part of a musical exchange. Matthew sent recordings of Jewish-American music in exhange for this recording.

Much of the music played by the Abayudaya are versions of American-Jewish songs. The community learned the music when Jewish visitors from the UK and US played the music for them. The Lecha Dodi and Sh'ma are sung in original Abayudaya tunes, written by Gershom. Douglas King, a Jewish man from Britain who visited the community in December of 1991, taught the community "Hava Nagilah," "David Melech Yisrael," and "Hinei Matov".

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