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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Kalenjin popular music and the contestation of national space in Kenya
Author:Simatei, PeterISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Journal of Eastern African Studies (ISSN 1753-1063)
Volume:4
Issue:3
Pages:425-434
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:ethnic identity
popular music
Kalenjin
nationalism
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2010.517409
Abstract:This paper addresses how Kalenjin popular music, played mainly on the Kalenjin language KASS FM Radio based in Nairobi (Kenya) and also broadcasting on the Internet, participates in the consolidation of Kalenjin identities by recasting the collective national space - as governed by the nation-State - as a sphere of influence potentially injurious to imagined Kalenjin cultural and economic interests. It becomes a music of identity that deploys history, mythology and narration as a means of reshaping Kalenjin self-definition and culture. But while paying attention to these forms of ethnic self-definition, and how they are used to counter the homogenizing and hegemonizing logic of the national space, this paper also addresses the contradictions that circumscribe the music's gesture towards the pure ethnic while operating from a space that is already hybrid and multicultural, shaped by a confluence of non-Kalenjin ways of life, values and ideas. The conclusion shows how the emergence of new sites of power brokering has challenged the nation-State's governance of the public domain. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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