Cultural Production and Change in Kenya

Cultural Production and Change in Kenya PDF Author: Kimani Njogu
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9966974377
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
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.

Cultural Production and Change in Kenya

Cultural Production and Change in Kenya PDF Author: Kimani Njogu
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9966974377
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

(Re)membering Kenya Vol 1

(Re)membering Kenya Vol 1 PDF Author: Mbũgua wa Mũngai
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9966724478
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
One of the critical questions that Kenyans have continuously asked is what went wrong in January and February 2008 with the "peace" they had hitherto enjoyed. There have not been readily available answers to this fundamental question. The collection of papers presented in this book attempt to provide, as a starting point, possible explanations for the events of early 2008 including key background issues in Kenyan history since pre-independence times. Based on a series of public lectures titled (Re)membering Kenya organized by the volume editors together with Twaweza Communications and sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Kenya, the Institute for International Education and The Ford Foundation the lecture series became a way of trying to get scholars to engage meaningfully with the Kenyan public on critical matters pertaining to their nationhoodóeven if this entailed first calling to question the "lie" about the very ideas and practices upon which that nationhood is assumed to stand. A key lesson drawn from the unfolding discussions at the Goethe-Institut Kenya was that the 2007 elections' debacle was merely the cusp of momentous crises to do with among other issues, governance, law and order, Parliament's abdication of its role in ensuring accountability from the Executive, dilemmas of identity and socio-economic marginality. The book is the first of three volumes under the (Re)membering Kenya series whose overall objective is to cast some new light on the various trajectories that informed the happenings of January 2008. The present volume brings together some of the best interpretative writing and suggestions on pertinent questions, past and present, ranging from the architecture of Kenya's ethnicity, Kenyanness, generational competition, socialization and violence, iconic representations of identity to the ongoing debate on the efficacy of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). It is hoped that the issues debated during the public lectures and documented herein will spur further discussions in other spaces within civil society organizations, among activists and in newspapers where the public might continue to expand their thinking on the complex task of (Re)membering Kenya.

(Re)membering Kenya Vol 1

(Re)membering Kenya Vol 1 PDF Author: wa-Mungai Mbugua
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 996602820X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
One of the critical questions that Kenyans have continuously asked is what went wrong in January and February 2008 with the peace they had hitherto enjoyed. There have not been readily available answers to this fundamental question. The collection of papers presented in this book attempt to provide, as a starting point, possible explanations for the events of early 2008 including key background issues in Kenyan history since pre-independence times. Based on a series of public lectures titled (Re)membering Kenya organized by the volume editors together with Twaweza Communications and sponsored by the Goethe-Institut Kenya, the Institute for International Education and The Ford Foundation the lecture series became a way of trying to get scholars to engage meaningfully with the Kenyan public on critical matters pertaining to their nationhoodeven if this entailed first calling to question the lie about the very ideas and practices upon which that nationhood is assumed to stand. A key lesson drawn from the unfolding discussions at the Goethe-Institut Kenya was that the 2007 elections debacle was merely the cusp of momentous crises to do with among other issues, governance, law and order, Parliaments abdication of its role in ensuring accountability from the Executive, dilemmas of identity and socio-economic marginality. The book is the first of three volumes under the (Re)membering Kenya series whose overall objective is to cast some new light on the various trajectories that informed the happenings of January 2008. The present volume brings together some of the best interpretative writing and suggestions on pertinent questions, past and present, ranging from the architecture of Kenyas ethnicity, Kenyanness, generational competition, socialization and violence, iconic representations of identity to the ongoing debate on the efficacy of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). It is hoped that the issues debated during the public lectures and documented herein will spur further discussions in other spaces within civil society organizations, among activists and in newspapers where the public might continue to expand their thinking on the complex task of (Re)membering Kenya.

The Socio-Cultural, Ethnic and Historic Foundations of Kenya’s Electoral Violence

The Socio-Cultural, Ethnic and Historic Foundations of Kenya’s Electoral Violence PDF Author: Stephen M. Magu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351142429
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Kenya’s 2007 General Election results announcement precipitated the worst ethnic conflict in the country’s history; 1,133 people were killed, while 600,000 were internally displaced. Within 2 months, the incumbent and the challenger had agreed to a power-sharing agreement and a Government of National Unity. This book investigates the role of socio-cultural origins of ethnic conflict during electoral periods in Kenya beginning with the multi-party era of democratization and the first multi-party elections of 1992, illustrating how ethnic groups construct their interests and cooperate (or fail to) based on shared traits. The author demonstrates that socio-cultural traditions have led to the collaboration (and frequent conflict) between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin that has dominated power and politics in independent Kenya. The author goes onto evaluate the possibility of peace for future elections. This book will be of interest to scholars of African democracy, Kenyan history and politics, and ethnic conflict.

Contemporary Dance

Contemporary Dance PDF Author: Yvette Hutchison
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 184701187X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
African dance is discussed here in its global as well as local contexts as a powerful vehicle of aesthetic and cultural exchange and influence.

Getting Heard: [Re]claiming Performance Space in Kenya

Getting Heard: [Re]claiming Performance Space in Kenya PDF Author: Kimani Njogu
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9966724435
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Getting Heard: (Re)claiming Performance Space is the third in a series of publications on art, culture and society released by Twaweza Communications. The aim is to bring to the fore conversations taking place in Kenya about identity, creativity, nationalism and the generation of knowledge. The series is also about the pursuit of freedom through arts, media and culture. In Getting Heard the performance space is shown to offer wider possibilities for knowledge creation. It shows that in post-colonial Africa political leaders have consistently performed over their subjects at local and national levels. There is discussion of: Kenya National Theatre, Story Telling, Radio Theatre, Translation, African Languages, Music, Media and Mungiki This volume opens a window to our understanding of post-colonial Africa through performances.

Historical Dictionary of Kenya

Historical Dictionary of Kenya PDF Author: Michael Mwenda Kithinji
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538157462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 617

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Book Description
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.

The Media and Cultural Production

The Media and Cultural Production PDF Author: Eric Louw
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1847871410
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book offers a fresh and accessible introduction to the relationship between media power and cultural production. By marshalling a range of theoretical perspectives from political economy and cultural studies, The Media and Cultural Production invites the reader to analyze the relationship between the making of meaning, political, economic and social power and the machinery of cultural production - the media. The book: critically examines the notion of the `cultural industries'; examines the regulatory framework in which the cultural industries operate; looks at the impact of globalization on cultural production; explores the way in which meaning is both produced and contested. The Media and Cultural Production demonstrates how concepts in communication and cultural studies can be mobilized to analyze cultural production in a range of contexts.

Music and Digital Media

Music and Digital Media PDF Author: Georgina Born
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1800082436
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
Anthropology has neglected the study of music and this needs to be redressed. This book sets out to show how and why. It does so by bringing music to the subfield of digital anthropology, arguing that digital anthropology has much to gain by expanding its horizons to music – becoming more interdisciplinary by reference to digital/media studies, music and sound studies. Music and Digital Media is the first comparative ethnographic study of the impact of digital media on music worldwide. It offers a radical and lucid new theoretical framework for understanding digital media through music, showing that music is today where the promises and problems of the ‘digital’ assume clamouring audibility – while acting as a testing ground for innovations in the digital-cultural industries. The book contains ten chapters, eight of which present comprehensive original ethnographies. The chapters between them addresses popular, folk and art musics in the global South and North, including Kenya, Argentina, India, Canada and the UK/Europe, with each chapter providing a different regional or digital focus. The book is unique in bringing ethnographic research on popular, folk and art musics from the global North and South into a comparative framework on a large scale, and creates an innovative new paradigm for comparative anthropology. Praise for Music and Digital Media ‘This exciting volume forges new ground in the study of local conditions, institutions, and sounds of digital music in the Global South and North. The book’s planetary scope and its commitment to the “messiness” of ethnographic sites and concepts amplifies emergent configurations and meanings of music, the digital, and the aesthetic.’ Marina Peterson, University of Texas, Austin 'The global drama of music's digitisation elicits extreme responses – from catastrophe to piratical opportunism – but between them lie more nuanced perspectives. This timely, absolutely necessary collection applies anthropological understanding to a deliriously immersive field, bringing welcome clarity to complex processes whose impact is felt far beyond what we call music.' David Toop, London College of Communication ‘Spanning continents and academic disciplines, the rich ethnographies contained in Music and Digital Media makes it obligatory reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex, contradictory, and momentous effects that digitization is having on musical cultures.’ Eric Drott, University of Texas, Austin ‘This superb collection, with an authoritative overview as its introduction, represents the state of the art in studies of the digitalisation of music. It is also a testament to what anthropology at its reflexive best can offer the rest of the social sciences and humanities.’ David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds ‘Music and Digital Media is a groundbreaking update to our understandings of sound, media, digitization, and music. Truly transdisciplinary and transnational in scope, it innovates methodologically through new models for collaboration, multi-sited ethnography, and comparative work. It also offers an important defense of—and advancement of—theories of mediation.’ Jonathan Sterne, McGill University 'Music and Digital Media is a nuanced exploration of the burgeoning digital music scene across both the global North and the global South. Ethnographically rich and theoretically sophisticated, this collection will become the new standard for this field.' Anna Tsing, co-editor of Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene

Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya

Conservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage in Kenya PDF Author: Anne-Marie Deisser
Publisher: UCL Press
ISBN: 1910634824
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
In Kenya, cultural and natural heritage has a particular value. Its pre-historic heritage not only tells the story of man's origin and evolution but has also contributed to the understanding of the earth's history: fossils and artefacts spanning over 27 million years have been discovered and conserved by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Alongside this, the steady rise in the market value of African art has also affected Kenya. Demand for African tribal art has surpassed that for antiquities of Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian origin, and in African countries currently experiencing conflicts, this activity invariably attracts looters, traffickers and criminal networks. This book brings together essays by heritage experts from different backgrounds, including conservation, heritage management, museum studies, archaeology, environment and social sciences, architecture and landscape, geography, philosophy and economics to explore three key themes: the underlying ethics, practices and legal issues of heritage conservation; the exploration of architectural and urban heritage of Nairobi; and the natural heritage, landscapes and sacred sites in relation to local Kenyan communities and tourism. It thus provides an overview of conservation practices in Kenya from 2000 to 2015 and highlights the role of natural and cultural heritage as a key factor of social-economic development, and as a potential instrument for conflict resolution