Popular Music Ethnicity And Politics In The Kenya Of The 1990s

Author : T. Michael Mboya
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527528251
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Popular Music, Ethnicity and Politics in the Kenya of the 1990s written by T. Michael Mboya and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-02-13 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Okatch Biggy was the single most dominant benga artiste of the 1990s. Over that decade, benga was the most important genre of popular music in Kenya. What is it about the music of Okatch Biggy that made it attractive to his target audience, the Luo of the 1990s? Is there something about the Luo of the 1990s that predisposed them to this music? In the course of answering these—and related—questions, this volume analyzes Okatch Biggy’s songs as works of art, that is, by identifying the aesthetic and rhetorical conventions that are deployed in the songs, and explores the central messages that the music transmits. It shows the significance of the meanings in Okatch Biggy’s music for the Luo of the 1990s by situating it in the historical context from which it emerged. Literary instruments of analysis and contextualizing material gathered from various knowledge archives are deployed in the production of the textual meaning of the popular music of Okatch Biggy, which is used here as a lens through which to understand the relationship between politics and ethnicity in the Kenya of the 1990s.The book’s carefully demonstrated argument is that, in both the form and the content of his music, Okatch Biggy undertook a comprehensive culturalist-nationalist project of Luo definition that was persuasive to his primary audience in the highly ethnicized political context in which he became successful. This is a timely study given the current renewed scholarly interest in African popular music that has come on the back of the rise of leisure studies and the reinvigoration of popular culture studies.

Author : wa Mutonya, Maina
Publisher : Twaweza Communications
ISBN 13 : 9966028447
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Politics of Everyday Life in Gikuyu Popular Musice of Kenya 1990-2000 written by wa Mutonya, Maina and published by Twaweza Communications. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While probing the politics of everyday in Gikuyu popular music, the main thrust of this book is to unpack the representation of daily struggles through music. Depending mainly on the lyrics of the songs, the study also combines both the textual and the contextual analysis of the music. Music here is studied both as a text, and as an aspect of popular culture. The decade 1990-2000 in Kenya provides two contrasting political developments, which directly impacted on the ordinary Kenyan; firstly, the extremes of the country's one-party rule were at the peak until when multi-party democracy was re-introduced. This ushered in a new era, but with antecedents in one-party rule, where service delivery was below par and economic mismanagement, corruption, assassinations and detentions continued unabated. It is in this contrasting environment that popular arts proliferated as a way of countering the repressed freedom of expression. This book, therefore, looks at how the Gikuyu musicians reacted and responded to these social and political realities in their songs. Music is discussed as an essential site for creation, re-creation and negotiation of the various forms of identities.

Author : Kimani Njogu
Publisher : African Books Collective
ISBN 13 : 9987081088
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa written by Kimani Njogu and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2007-10-15 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa brings together important essays on songs and politics in the region and beyond. Through an analysis of the voices from the margins, the authors (contributors) enter into the debate on cultural productions and political change. The theme that cuts across the contributions is that songs are, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, vital tools for exploring how political and social events are shaped and understood by citizens. Urbanization, commercialization and globalization contributed to the vibrancy of East African popular music of the 1990s which was marked by hybridity, syncretism and innovativeness. It was a product of social processes inseparable from society, politics, and other critical issues of the day. The lyrics explored socials cosmology, worldviews, class and gender relations, interpretations of value systems, and other political, social and cultural practices, even as they entertained and provided momentary escape for audience members. Frustration, disenchantments, and emotional fatigue resulting from corrupt and dictatorial political systems that stifle the potential of citizens drove and still drive popular music in Eastern Africa as in most of Africa. Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa is an important addition to the study of popular culture and its role in shaping society.

Author : Michael Mwenda Kithinji
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538157462
Total Pages : 617 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Kenya written by Michael Mwenda Kithinji and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2024-06-18 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kenya has a rich and complex history. Due to the vast discoveries of prehistoric archaeological remains, Kenya is one of the few places in the world with the largest and most complete record of human’s cultural development. Furthermore, the country’s strategic location astride the Indian Ocean and the East African littoral attracted numerous foreigners such as the Arabs, Persians, Portuguese, Americans, British, Chinese, French, and Germans. Additionally, immigrants from throughout Africa and beyond have settled in Kenya to escape conflict or political persecution, while others wanted an opportunity to begin a new life. As a result of being a gateway to the world, the country traditionally has been one of the most important business, cultural, diplomatic, and political centers in Africa. Still, Kenya, like many other countries throughout the world, has been plagued by an increasing array of complex economic, political, and social challenges. Historical Dictionary of Kenya, Fourth Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Kenya.

Author : Kimani Njogu
Publisher : African Books Collective
ISBN 13 : 9987449425
Total Pages : 421 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa written by Kimani Njogu and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2007 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together essays on songs and politics in the region of Eastern Africa and beyond. The theme that cuts across the contributions is that songs are, in addition to their aesthetic appeal, vital tools for exploring how political and social events are shaped and understood by citizens. Urbanization, commercialization and globalization contributed to the vibrancy of East African popular music of the 1990s. It was a product of social processes inseparable from society, politics, and other critical issues of the day. The lyrics explored socials cosmology, world views, class and gender relations, interpretations of value systems, and other political, social and cultural practices, even as they entertained and provided momentary escape for audience members. Frustration, disenchantments, and emotional fatigue resulting from corrupt and dictatorial political systems that stifle the potential of citizens drove and still drive popular music in Eastern Africa as in most of Africa.

Author : O. Mudhai
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 0230621759
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book African Media and the Digital Public Sphere written by O. Mudhai and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-05-25 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the claims that new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are catalysts of democratic change in Africa. It takes optimist, pragmatist-realist and pessimist stances on various political actors and institutions, from government units and political parties to civil society organizations and minority groups.

Author : F. Maina Mutonya
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book The Politics of Everyday Life in Gikuyu Popular Music of Kenya (1990-2000). written by F. Maina Mutonya and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Charles Hornsby
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 0755627970
Total Pages : 976 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Kenya written by Charles Hornsby and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since independence from Great Britain in 1963, Kenya has survived five decades as a functioning nation-state, holding regular elections; its borders and political system intact and avoiding open war with its neighbours and military rule internally. It has been a favoured site for Western aid, trade, investment and tourism and has remained a close security partner for Western governments. However, Kenya's successive governments have failed to achieve adequate living conditions for most of its citizens; violence, corruption and tribalism have been ever-present, and its politics have failed to transcend its history. The decisions of the early years of independence and the acts of its leaders in the decades since have changed the country's path in unpredictable ways, but key themes of conflicts remain: over land, money, power, economic policy, national autonomy and the distribution of resources between classes and communities.While the country's political institutions have remained stable, the nation has changed, its population increasing nearly five-fold in five decades. But the economic and political elite's struggle for state resources and the exploitation of ethnicity for political purposes still threaten the country's existence. Today, Kenyans are arguing over many of the issues that divided them 50 years ago. The new constitution promulgated in 2010 provides an opportunity for national renewal, but it must confront a heavy legacy of history. This book reveals that history.

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.8T/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Africa Insight written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Vanessa Knights
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317091590
Total Pages : 275 pages
Book Rating : 4.92/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location written by Vanessa Knights and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-29 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are national identities constructed and articulated through music? Popular music has long been associated with political dissent, and the nation state has consistently demonstrated a determination to seek out and procure for itself a stake in the management of 'its' popular musics. Similarly, popular musics have been used 'from the ground up' as sites for both populist and popular critiques of nationalist sentiment, from the position of both a globalizing and a 'local' vernacular culture. The contributions in this book arrive at a critical moment in the development of the study of national cultures and musicology. The book ranges from considerations of the ideological focus of cultural nationalism through to analyses of musical hybridity and musical articulations of other kinds of identities at odds with national identity. The processes of global homogenization are thereby shown to have brought about a transitional crisis for national cultural identities: the evolution of these identities, particularly with reference to the concept of 'authenticity' in music, is situated within broader debates on power, political economy and constructions of the self. Theorizations of practice are employed after the manner of Bourdieu, Gramsci, Goffman, Gadamer, Habermas, Bhabha, Lacan and Zizek. Each contribution acts as a case study to characterize the strategies through which differing modes of musical discourse engage, critique or obscure discourses on national identity. The studies include discussions of: musical representations of Irishness; the relationship between Afropop and World Music; Norwegian club music; the revival of traditional music in Serbia; resistance to cultural homogeneity in Brazil; contemporary Uyghur song in Northwest China; rap and race in French society; technobanda from the barrios of Los Angeles, and Spanish/Moroccan raï. In this way, the book seeks to characterize the ideological configurations that help to activate and sustain hegemonic, amb