The embaire xylophone of Nakibembe village, Busoga, made and decorated by one of the musicians, Rashidi Bidhampola Ngobi, and tuned by Waiswa James (A.J.)

Nakibembe village group playing giant embairé xylophone. 'Nakibembe Xylophone Group'. Nakibembe is a village some 6km from the nearest road with tarmac, east the town Iganga in Busoga. There, the resident group play a giant log xylophone ( embaire munene). This instrument stretches over 2.5 meters, with the large keys resting on felled banana trunks, A pit is dug underneath to help resonate the bass keys, which double as drums in this recent innovation in Soga music. The group were formed in 1976 and travel throughout Busoga to perform at traditional functions. Several releases of cassette tapes of their music have helped popularise the group. Over the last 3 years Haruna Walusimbi (director of the successful “Nile Beat Artists” troupe) has guided the group and promoted them at Busoga’s annual music festival in Jinja town. (Amadinda)