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The Idiom of Age in a Popular Kenyan Newspaper Serial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

George Ogola
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Abstract

This article examines the narratives constructed around age in Kenya. Noting the ‘spatial crossings’ of the Kenyan subject, who is as much attuned to the village ethos as he is to the globalized world, the article problematizes our approach to the study of age in Africa. It discusses the multiple narratives now constructed around age within the context of a society in rapid flux, especially underscoring its relationship to authority. The article proposes that there are multiple ways – some new, others merely reinvented – in which social and political relationships are now (re)constructed around age in Africa. The article is based on a critical reading of popular fiction, an important site of popular cultural production where the performance of political power is manifest and narratives around power are created and enacted. The work is based on a popular Kenyan newspaper serial ‘Whispers’, an important site of cultural production in the 1980s–1990s. This period witnessed ruthless political repression in Kenya when spaces of popular expression were all but monopolized by the government. It is in such sites as ‘Whispers’ that ‘spaces of freedom’ emerged, narrating the travails of the period and challenging the ‘bounds of the expressible’. Through ‘Whispers’, the article explores how age and gender are used as ‘instrumentalities of political survival’ but also how African maledom reacts to the challenges of globalization that threaten to disrupt the status quo, especially regarding the normative grammar of patriarchy. Further, the article explores how the twin elements of gender and age are manipulated by the Kenyan polity but also simultaneously reproduced and contested by society, resulting in a largely contradictory discourse that challenges but at the same time reaffirms the (il)legitimacy of gerontocracy and the sanctity of the male order.

Résumé

Cet article examine les récits construits autour de l'âge au Kenya. Notant les “croisements spatiaux” du sujet kenyan, aussi sensible à l'esprit du village qu'au monde globalisé, l'article problématise notre approche de l'étude de l'âge en Afrique. Il examine les récits multiples aujourd'hui construits autour de l'âge dans le contexte d'une société en mutation rapide, en soulignant notamment son rapport à l'autorité. L'article suggère que les relations sociales et politiques se (re)construisent aujourd'hui de multiples façons (certaines nouvelles, d'autres simplement réinventées) autour de l'âge en Afrique. L'article se base sur une lecture critique des romans populaires, champ important de production culturelle populaire où le jeu du pouvoir politique est manifeste et les récits autour du pouvoir sont créés et interprétés. Ces travaux reposent sur un feuilleton populaire, Whispers, paru dans un journal kenyan, champ important de production culturelle dans les années 1980 et 1990. Cette période a été témoin d'une répression politique impitoyable au Kenya, au cours de laquelle tous les espaces d'expression populaire étaient monopolisés par le gouvernement. C'est dans des champs comme Whispers que des ≪espaces de liberté≫ sont apparus, narrant les difficultés de la période et défiant les ≪limites de l'exprimable≫. À travers Whispers, l'article examine la manière dont l'âge et le sexe sont utilisés comme ≪instruments de survie politique≫, mais également la manière dont la gent masculine africaine réagit aux défis de la globalisation qui menacent de perturber le statu quo, notamment concernant la grammaire normative du système patriarcal. L'article examine ensuite la manière dont le sexe et l'âge, éléments jumeaux, sont manipulés par les institutions kenyanes, mais également simultanément reproduits et contestés par la société, provoquant un discours sensiblement contradictoire qui remet en cause et dans le même temps réaffirme la légitimité (ou l'illégitimité) de la gérontocratie et de l'inviolabilité de l'ordre masculin.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 76 , Issue 4 , November 2006 , pp. 569 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2006

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