Endingidi (tubefiddle) pedagogy in bunyoro kingdom: individual mastery, narrative transmission, and solo performance traditions in Ugandan music education

Abstract

This article examines Endingidi pedagogy in Bunyoro Kingdom, Uganda, analysing how this single-string tube-fiddle tradition transmits individual mastery, narrative competence, and solo performance skills across generations. Drawing on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, and indepth interviews with seven master Endingidi performers, the study employs Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) within an integrated theoretical framework combining Community of Practice theory, Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, ethnomusicological transmission theory, decolonial pedagogy, and embodied cognition. The study identifies seven analytically derived pedagogical principles: individual agency, narrative competence, technical mastery, improvisation, intimate performeraudience relationships, portable learning, and intergenerational mentorship. Crucially, for each principle, the study documents not merely what is learned but the processual HOW — the specific mechanisms through which integration is achieved. These mechanisms include the Graduated Release of Autonomy (GRA), parallel curriculum sequencing, periodic performance assessments, variation assignment pedagogy, audience reading exercises, contextual diversity strategy, and individualised ‘reading the learner’ instruction. The findings challenge ensemblecentric assumptions in African music education scholarship, extend Community of Practice theory, and contribute a replicable decolonial pedagogical framework applicable to indigenous instrument education across sub-Saharan Africa.