Praise and Protest: Music and Contesting Patriotisms in Postcolonial Kenya

Abstract

This paper explores the partisan nature of music and musicians in Kenya from the colonial era to the present, and investigates how music served many differing sectarian interests during this period. It reveals how the ambivalent space within which musicians work influences and shapes their music, paying particular attention to political context. It shows how officialdom in postcolonial Kenya has endeavored to construct, and then saturate public space with, its own version of patriotism. The paper also reveals the ways in which such patriotism is contested. However, the fact that, in the economic and political context of contemporary Kenya, some musicians defend their right to economic gain in response to accusations of sycophancy, suggests that popular music does not always function as a site of subversion.