Popular culture, gender relations and the democratization of everyday life in Kenya

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 209-222

  Frederiksen, Bodil Folke ^a  

^a ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL INFLUENCE; DEMOCRATIZATION; GENDER RELATIONS; MARRIAGE;

KENYA;

EID: 0034031694     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070050010075     Document Type: Article

References (36)

1. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
2. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
3. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
4. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
5. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
6. In the context of Southern African studies this approach was pioneered by D.B. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre (Johannesburg, 1985) and V. Erlmann, African Stars: Studies in Black South African Performance (Chicago, 1991). Karin Barber has worked both on the production and reception of popular culture in an African context, and collected the most significant work in this field: K. Barber, 'Popular Arts in Africa', African Studies Review, 30, 3 (1987), pp. 1-78; Readings in African Popular Culture (Oxford, 1997); Audiences in Action. Africa, 67, 3 (1997). See also B.F. Frederiksen, 'Popular Culture in the South: Production and Reception', in B.F. Frederiksen and F. Wilson (eds), Livelihood, Identity and Instability (Copenhagen, 1997), pp. 167-177.
7. U. Hannerz, 'Notes on the Global Ecumene', Public Culture, 1, 2(1989), pp. 66-75; J. Friedman, 'The Parameters of Modernity', in M. Featherstone, S. Lasch and R. Robertson (eds), Global Modernities (Oxford, 1995), pp. 69-90; A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Modernity (Minneapolis and London, 1998).
8. U. Hannerz, 'Notes on the Global Ecumene', Public Culture, 1, 2(1989), pp. 66-75; J. Friedman, 'The Parameters of Modernity', in M. Featherstone, S. Lasch and R. Robertson (eds), Global Modernities (Oxford, 1995), pp. 69-90; A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Modernity (Minneapolis and London, 1998).
9. U. Hannerz, 'Notes on the Global Ecumene', Public Culture, 1, 2(1989), pp. 66-75; J. Friedman, 'The Parameters of Modernity', in M. Featherstone, S. Lasch and R. Robertson (eds), Global Modernities (Oxford, 1995), pp. 69-90; A. Appadurai, Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Modernity (Minneapolis and London, 1998).
10. See S. Fish, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretative Communities (Cambridge, MA, 1980).
11. M.H.O. Onduro and F.A. Opondo, Pumwani Villages Population Census (Nairobi 1996), p. 31.
12. Ibid., p. 9.
13. From a group interview of young women, Nairobi, October 1998. Fieldwork was conducted in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.1 thank the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Nairobi for welcoming me as a research associate, and the Office of the President for granting me a Research Permit. Information gathering and interpretation was undertaken in a team. A survey and participant observation of Video Parlours was carried out by Isabel Munandi, assisted by Thomas Muinde and Julius Mwaniki. A survey of leisure activities was conducted by the above plus David Mita Aluku and George Muoria. Aluku, Muoria, Mwaniki and Muinde carried out surveys of young men's working activities, and of practices and views of marriage and cohabitation. I thank them all for their invaluable help. I assisted in surveys and carried out group and life history interviews. I want to thank Finn Stepputat, Isabel Munandi and JSAS readers for comments on earlier version of the paper.
14. B.F. Frederiksen, 'Work and Leisure among Youth in Pumwani', Working Paper 1, Roskilde, 1995, p. 5.
15. Generalizations as sweeping as this one obviously need modification. For young women's collectivities among the Maasai in East Africa, see P. Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato. A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Bloomington, 1988), ch. 10 and p. 205ff; and for the Luo, see A.B.C. Ochollo-Ayayo, The Spirit of a Nation. An Analysis of Policy. Ethics, and Customary Rules of Conduct for Regulating Fertility Levels in Kenya (Nairobi, 1991).
16. Generalizations as sweeping as this one obviously need modification. For young women's collectivities among the Maasai in East Africa, see P. Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato. A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Bloomington, 1988), ch. 10 and p. 205ff; and for the Luo, see A.B.C. Ochollo-Ayayo, The Spirit of a Nation. An Analysis of Policy. Ethics, and Customary Rules of Conduct for Regulating Fertility Levels in Kenya (Nairobi, 1991).
17. For a discussion in the context of Tanzania, see Z. Tumbo-Masabo and R. Liljeström (eds), Chelewa, Chelewa. The Dilemma of Teenage Girls (Uppsala, 1994), pp. 51 and 211.
18. See R.A. LeVine, 'The Diffusion of Age Group Organisation in East Africa', Africa 32, 2 (1962), pp. 97-110.
19. Suzette Heald reports that, among the Gusi, relations between adjacent generations were characterized by 'formality and restraint', whereas those within a 'single generation' were based on and coloured by 'conjugal sexuality'. S. Heald, 'The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells' "African Sexuality" Thesis', Africa, 65, 4 (1995), p. 495. See also Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato ; R.A. LeVine et al., Child Care and Culture. Lessons from Africa (Cambridge, 1994), p. 63.
20. Suzette Heald reports that, among the Gusi, relations between adjacent generations were characterized by 'formality and restraint', whereas those within a 'single generation' were based on and coloured by 'conjugal sexuality'. S. Heald, 'The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells' "African Sexuality" Thesis', Africa, 65, 4 (1995), p. 495. See also Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato ; R.A. LeVine et al., Child Care and Culture. Lessons from Africa (Cambridge, 1994), p. 63.
21. Suzette Heald reports that, among the Gusi, relations between adjacent generations were characterized by 'formality and restraint', whereas those within a 'single generation' were based on and coloured by 'conjugal sexuality'. S. Heald, 'The Power of Sex: Some Reflections on the Caldwells' "African Sexuality" Thesis', Africa, 65, 4 (1995), p. 495. See also Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato ; R.A. LeVine et al., Child Care and Culture. Lessons from Africa (Cambridge, 1994), p. 63.
22. B. Berman and J. Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley. Conflict in Kenya and Africa. Book Two: Violence and Ethnicity (London, 1992), p. 422; J. Davison, Voices from Mutira: Lives of Rural Gikuyu Women (Boulder and London, 1989), p. 19; N. Price, 'The Changing Value of Children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya', Africa, 66, 3 (1996), pp. 412 and 423.
23. B. Berman and J. Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley. Conflict in Kenya and Africa. Book Two: Violence and Ethnicity (London, 1992), p. 422; J. Davison, Voices from Mutira: Lives of Rural Gikuyu Women (Boulder and London, 1989), p. 19; N. Price, 'The Changing Value of Children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya', Africa, 66, 3 (1996), pp. 412 and 423.
24. B. Berman and J. Lonsdale, Unhappy Valley. Conflict in Kenya and Africa. Book Two: Violence and Ethnicity (London, 1992), p. 422; J. Davison, Voices from Mutira: Lives of Rural Gikuyu Women (Boulder and London, 1989), p. 19; N. Price, 'The Changing Value of Children among the Kikuyu of Central Province, Kenya', Africa, 66, 3 (1996), pp. 412 and 423.
25. Group interview with young women, Nairobi, October 1998.
26. Ibid.
27. See for instance, Davison, Voices from Mutira, pp. 69-70.
28. 'Marry in Haste, Repent in ...', Daily Nation, 7 November 1997.
29. Ochollo-Ayayo, The Spirit of a Nation, p. 84.
30. On the importance of social respect especially for urban women in Kampala, see J.A. Ogden, ' "Producing" respect: the "proper woman" in postcolonial Kampala', in R. Werbner and T. Ranger (eds), Postcolonial Identities in Africa (London, 1996), pp. 165-192.
31. His position was not without tensions. Their mother blamed her older son because he wasted his time by associating with young people.
32. S.R. Whyte 'Sex and Death in Western Kenya', in M. Jackson and I. Karp (eds), Personhood and Agency. The Experience of Self and Other in African Cultures (Uppsala, 1990), pp. 111-112.
33. 'Living Together: Is it Worth the Trouble?' and 'Why I'm Afraid of "come we stay" ', Daily Nation, 2 May 1997, pp. 1 and 3.
34. 'Living Together: Is it Worth the Trouble?' and 'Why I'm Afraid of "come we stay" ', Daily Nation, 2 May 1997, pp. 1 and 3.
35. Group interview with young women, Nairobi, October 1998.
36. LeVine, Child Care and Culture, p. 266.