Language, Gender and Power Relations: A Study of Power Structure in Dholuo Dirges

This paper examines the image of women emanating from the Luo dirges and their implications in gender relations. It identifies the expressions and idioms used in Luo dirges, describe the gender biased expressions in these linguistic items and show how the terms both reflect and structure power relations between the females and males in the said community. It provides a case study of the relationship between language and gender in dholuo by providing linguistic evidence of sexist ideology reflected in the vocabulary and expressions associated with women. It, in particular, aims to demonstrate the role that language plays in the social categorization and cultural evaluation of power in Luo community, and the extent to which patterns of language use is reflective of Luo social structure, cultural values of inequality and oppression, and sustenance of the existing gender arrangements. It will achieve this through an analysis of the imagery embodied in the language used in Luo dirges. The hypothesis underlying the study is that language has been used to project a negative image of women and sustain patriarchy. This paper provides data on gender discrimination in language and how language reflects social structures and patterns in the society. It shows the impact of language in the society and how it can promote discrimination as well as mirror the injustices in our societies. It shades light on how language in literature plays a major role as far as structuring patterns in the society and socialising members of a society in to the structure is concerned. Keywords: Luo, Dirges, Gender, Languag

The Paradox of Pain in Tosh Gitonga’s Nairobi Half Life

The paper aims at finding out what makes crime fiction enchanting and overwhelming thereby arresting the audience and how the filmmakers manage to re-dramatize pain and still maintain pleasure making it possible for audiences to feel pleasure while watching atrocities of crime and objects of distress which would be unpleasant or even horrific if set before them in real life. The paper focuses closely on the narrative and cinematic techniques used by the film producers as well as  analyzing the responses from selected respondents to determine if the crime film under study;  Nairobi Half Life entertain the audience or not. The question guiding the methodology is “how do film producers in Nairobi Half Life incorporate cinematic techniques to transform imaginations of crime and violence into a pleasurable discourse engaging viewers while influencing the understanding of the society. The study’s response to these demands will take two significant pertinent dimensions. First of all it ill interrogate the techniques film producers use to paint the crime and violence in the films positively, the study will then interview selected respondents and analyze their responses to determine the effects of the techniques used in the films on the audience

Psychoanalysis and film spectatorship

This paper interrogates selected cinematic and stylistic techniques with a view to establishing why film audience would enjoy watching a film featuring violence and instances of intense human suffering, which elicit pain, when they avoid painful situations in real life. The study is based on the hypothesis that though the fractured, chaotic, and violent aspects of crime would appear to be diametrically opposed to the entertainment functions of films, stylistic presentation of violence would cause the audience to enjoy watching films with criminal activities which they would otherwise shun in reality. The research is guided by the theory of Semiotics and Psychoanalysis and employs a qualitative research design. The findings of this research explain how the devices and techniques function to make the audience feel pleasure in response to tragedies of crime and objects of distress. The study draws a conclusion that cinematic techniques and stylistic devices transform the unpleasant emotional responses the audience may have into pleasurable ones through psychologically engaging the audiences’ mental schema.&nbsp

From the Snows of Kilimanjaro to Nairobi Half Life: Over 50 years of film in Kenya

This paper, traces the birth, growth and development of Kenyan voice in film since the dawn of film in the country to present. It further interrogates one Kenyan film with a view to establish the extent to which the Kenyan voice imbues Kenyan films with a unique vantage point when presented to the rest of the world. Thus the question guiding the paper is ‘how has Kenyan film incorporated conventions of filmmaking and language that Cinema employ, while at the same time discerning and maintaining the indigenous, Kenyan voice and how has this been achieved over years. Finally the conclusion reveals that after a period of over 50 years Kenyan films made by Kenyans redefine Kenya; telling Kenyan stories, reflecting the Kenyan life, culture, values and making statements about the Kenyan society without ‘aping’ westernized storylines  which could  demean the Kenyan culture