Pathways to African Feminism and Development - Journal of African Women’s Studies Centre, University of Nairobi - Vol 1 - Issue 3 - Portrayal of Women in Selected Songs of Kenyan Male Artistes - Abstract

Oct 22, 2026

Uploaded by Oliver

This article analyzes how Kenyan male artistes portray and view women through songs focused on women across popular music genres. Using social realism, Judith Butler’s performativity, Derrida’s alterity, and Lakoff’s metaphor theory, it examines women as metaphors within Kenyan gender discourse. The study outlines thematic concerns, stylistic aesthetics, “slips of the tongue,” and song functions as social dialogue, power negotiation, and sites for reconstructing gender and re-examining selves.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Pathways to African Feminism and Development-Journal ofAfrican Women’s Studies Centre, University of Nairobi ([http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals](http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals/)[/](http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals/)) Volume 1, Issue 3, December 2015 ISSN 2309-3625 Portrayal of Women in Selected Songs of Kenyan Male Artistes -Kanyi Thiong’o 1 Abstract This article analyses how Kenyan male artistes portray and appear to view women as evidenced in their songs about women. An application of social realism, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Derrida’s approach of alterity, and Lakoff’s theory of metaphor informs the analysis. Songs mark almost all spheres of life in Kenya. It is therefore, necessary to examine how the male artistes construct in the Kenyan society in their songs women. This can provide a window through which a better examination and understanding of the self and the other can be achieved by examining the gender discourse that prevails in the unconscious expressions of the artiste. This is because songs can be viewed as honest confessions of what usually remains concealed in the self, about the other. It is hereby observed that male artistes are always engaged in an internal dialogue that attempts to define women from masculine precincts. These masculine dialogues manifest themselves in songs where the subsumed addressee is a plurality of the self (the male artiste) and the other (the women subject) . The song is therefore, an interchange of a gendering process that voices its inner tensions, arguments, fears, hopes, dilemmas and ambitions through the song. Key Words: Men, Women, Songs, Viewership, Metaphor Introduction This article analyses how different Kenyan male artistes view and define women in their songs and is based on the premise that women form one of the major themes in the songs of most Kenyan male artistes. The paper samples some songs of popular artistes, who practice the benga, kapuka, genge, jipuka, and ohangla music genres covering the period from the nineteen seventies to date. The focus is on the most popular songs composed on themes about women from most ethnic communities in Kenya. The article analyses women viewership as metaphors. This approach borrows from Lakoff’s theory of metaphor. Lakoff observes that “the contemporary theory of metaphor is primarily conceptual, conventional, and part of the ordinary system of thought and language (2)”. This is examined at the following levels: 􀁸 thematic concerns-what male artistes consciously say about women; 􀁸 style-forms of aesthetics used to qualify women viewership; 􀁸 slips ofthe tongue-what they think about women and express unknowingly; 􀁸 song as a social dialogue between sexes; 􀁸 song as a negotiation of power; 􀁸 love songs as a site for reconstruction of gender and re-examination of selves; 􀁸 emerging categories of women that appear to be evolving from male perceptions of women in society; 􀁸 The essence of the emerging categories; discourses that characterize masculine stories about women, examination of what informs these perceptions as persons , and the role of the woman in relation to how she is represented in male artiste’s songs. The article analyses concealed assumptions and presuppositions that influence how male discourses construct women. The paper applies social realism and Judith Butler’s propositions that 1 Postgraduate Student, Department of English, Stellenbosch University, Western Cape | South Africa Pathways to African Feminism and Development-Journal ofAfrican Women’s Studies Centre, University of Nairobi ([http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals](http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals/)[/](http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/journals/)) Volume 1, Issue 3, December 2015 ISSN 2309-3625 “performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and a ritual, which achieves its effects through its naturalization in the context of a body, understood, in part, as a culturally sustained temporal duration (xv)” In ad

FAQs

What does the article study about Kenyan male artistes and women?

It studies how Kenyan male artistes view, define, and portray women through songs about women.

Which theoretical approaches guide the analysis?

The article applies social realism, Judith Butler’s theory of performativity, Derrida’s alterity, and Lakoff’s metaphor theory.

What kinds of levels does the analysis examine in the songs?

It examines thematic concerns, style, slips of the tongue, and the song’s roles as social dialogue, negotiation of power, and reconstruction of gender.

Oct 22, 2026

Uploaded by Oliver