1946 – Back to Africa, yet again!

The loneliness in my basement didn’t last long. Would you believe it, in the autumn of 1946, another member of my Richardson family arrived at William E Hill’s London store!  Maud Clarke (nee Richardson, one of John Richardson’s daughters) was looking for a violin to give for her daughter Lilian, a missionary teacher currently home in London on furlough from Uganda. (I mentioned her earlier in this narrative when recounting Raymond Richardson’s numerous travels in Africa).

Lilian was thrilled to have me, even though she was not a violinist, and she knew I could be useful to her young students in Kabale Preparatory School.

(Lilian is on the back row)

I could tell that Lilian Clarke was a Richardson!  She was extremely sensitive and full of compassion, but very strong and determined.  On arrival in her African home, I became aware of deep pain, conflict and dissonance in her bodily movements.  It transpired she was struggling with serious theological issues.  She had been made to feel that she was not a truly converted Christian.

These criticisms came from African leaders, the Balokole (the ‘saved ones’), as well as some of the powerful English missionaries.

It was closely linked to the atmosphere of the East African Revival, which had ‘exploded’ and spread like wildfire from nearby Gahini, Ruanda, in the 1930s – something I had heard with Raymond Richardson on my earlier African travels.

(Kabale 1945)

As you can imagine, as a musical body, I ‘picked up’ all this tension from a sonic perspective, and it was no accident that these struggles were closely connected to singing, music and movement.  The air around Kabale was filled with ‘Tukutendereza Yesu’, the theme song of the East Africa Revival which originated amongst Luganda-speaking Christians.  It is based on an English hymn popular at the Keswick Convention, and well-known by the early missionaries in the Kigezi area of Uganda.  Lilian’s friendly colleague Constance Hornby had written:

‘…….meetings were often followed by the singing of what they call the ‘signature tune’ or some similar chorus in all sorts of keys and over and over again, sometimes followed by irreverent laughter and almost always by swaying body movements….when the people throw themselves about and indulge in vocal gymnastics in the church services, as is frequently done, it seems to many in the mission to have the flavour of irreverence.”

The music for ‘Tukutendereza Yesu’ could never be described as interesting or adventurous, and yet it was sung with great enthusiasm, and it seemed to have extraordinary power and influence.  It can only be described as a ‘four-square’ Victorian hymn-tune built on only 3 plain chords.  The rhythm is standard, staid and predictable.  As I listened, I recognised how the Africans needed to burst open this predictability and bring their innate multi-rhythmic nature into this musical expression.

Into this mix, I heard other sounds.  I was aware of Uganda’s post-war political impetus towards independence from British control, and the need to celebrate innate African culture in every aspect of life – most notably in religion and in the arts. I wonder today if Lilian’s ‘tension’ in her body was resonating with the huge question of discordant African politics and also the conflicting dissonance of Western colonial rule and its demise (Milton Obote, Idi Amin, et al)

When Lilian tried to encourage some of her girls to play me, they were very obliging but their heart was not in it.  They were far more at home with a Drums, Tambourines, Rattles, Xylophones and hand-clapping.   Oh! How I wish that European and American ‘traditional’ musicians could be more relaxed in the use of their bodies!  My resonating body longs for players to move with me to the beat of drums!

As we shall soon see, I didn’t stay long in the Mission station.