Cultural production and social change in Kenya : building bridges

Art, Culture and Society Vol 1 is the first in a series of books to be published by Twaweza Communications on the relationship between art and society, with special reference to Kenya. It is part of a cultural leadership initiative being undertaken by the organization through a reexamination of the arts as they are produced and studied. This volume brings together important reflections on the arts and is a major step in encouraging dialogue on the relationship between creativity and the human condition in the region. Significantly, it creates a space for university-based academics to engage in dialogue with artists and writers based outside institutions of higher learning. The conversations will bridge the gap between the two domains for knowledge production and enrich creative enterprise in Kenya, in theory and practice. As the essays in this collection show, the present global situation demands a way to conceptualise and theorise an ever growing cultural interconnectedness, sometimes manifested in art; and interconnectedness that draws from a myriad of cultures and experiences. Through the bridges of contact and cultural exchange distant images are mediated and brought closer to us. They are reinterpreted and modified. In the final analysis, culture is shown to be an important aspect of human creativity but separateness and boundedness is contested. Instead, culture is shown to be malleable and fluid. The essays bring in a new freshness to our reading of the creative arts coming out of Kenya. Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 Introduction 12 PART ONE - Music 16 Chapter 1 - Music, Identity and Swahili Networks of Knowledge 18 Chapter 2 - Joseph Kamaru: Contending Narrations of Kenya's Politics Through Music 38 Chapter 3 - "'Is Marwa!' It's Ours": Popular music and Identity Politics in Kenyan Youth Culture 58 PART TWO - Youth 72 Chapter 4 - Kenyan Youth and the Entropic Destruction of a Hopeful Social Order 74 Chapter 5 - Behind Bars: Ngugi, Women, and the Rite/Right of Passage 86 Chapter 6 - Mchongoano Verbal Duels: Risky Discourse and Sociocultural Commentary 100 Chapter 7 - Sports and Games in Kenya and their Role in Society 122 Chapter 8 - Building Bridges through Trichotomous Youth Identities in Kenya: Evidence from Code Choice 140 PART THREE - Electronic Media 160 Chapter 9 - Reading FM Radio Stations in Kenya: Opening a Pandora's Box 162 PART FOUR - Art and Space 178 Chapter 10 - The Story of the Godown Arts Centre: A Journey to Freedom through the Arts 180 Chapter 11 - Art and Health Promotion: Creativity against HIV ad AIDS 198 PART FIVE - Leadership 226 Chapter 12 - Reflections on Intellectual Life and Knowing as a Problem in Alamin Mazrui's Shadows of the Moon 228 Chapter 13 - Political Culture and the Prospects of Multi-party Democracy in Kenya: Lessons from the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy-Kenya (CMD-Kenya) 256 Contributors 270