pop culture
Popular Culture and Post Colonialism in Kenya
Popular culture as manifested in the book “The River Between” by Ngugi Wa Thiongo depicts the collision between Africans and European ideologies and ways of life in colonial Kenyan society thus telling us more about the foundations of contemporary post colonial Kenya.
According to Jessie McKinney, Popular culture is the shared knowledge, beliefs and practices by a specific group that is especially as a result of Western culture that reflects and influences people’s way of life (Kinney 2004). Popular culture is subject to change and often an initiator of change. It is found everywhere around us and evolves over time and is influenced by the things that we experience, see and the ones that we are taught. Popular culture is synonymous with youth culture because the youth are most often the drivers of pop culture. In Kenya over 65% of the population (estimated at 3.8 million) is made up of the youth aged between 15 and 35 years. Many of these young people are in school and in training institutions and it is everyone’s desire to nurture and stimulate the young minds to reach their full potential in their chosen fields in order to create a new generation of responsible leaders who are able to redesign a sustainable world and a better life for all (Lilac 2012).
Post colonialism is the study of the legacy of the era of European, and sometimes American, direct global domination, which ended roughly in the mid-20th century, and the residual political, socio-economic, and psychological effects of that colonial history (Ndege 2009). The colonial powers came to foreign states and destroyed main parts of native traditional culture and replaced them with their own ones. This led to conflict when countries became independent and suddenly faced the challenge of developing a new nationwide identity and self confidence. In this essay I will discuss popular culture in Kenya and how it is manifested in some aspects of life, and then
Popular culture as manifested in the book “The River Between” by Ngugi Wa Thiongo depicts the collision between Africans and European ideologies and ways of life in colonial Kenyan society thus telling us more about the foundations of contemporary post colonial Kenya.
According to Jessie McKinney, Popular culture is the shared knowledge, beliefs and practices by a specific group that is especially as a result of Western culture that reflects and influences people’s way of life (Kinney 2004). Popular culture is subject to change and often an initiator of change. It is found everywhere around us and evolves over time and is influenced by the things that we experience, see and the ones that we are taught. Popular culture is synonymous with youth culture because the youth are most often the drivers of pop culture. In Kenya over 65% of the population (estimated at 3.8 million) is made up of the youth aged between 15 and 35 years. Many of these young people are in school and in training institutions and it is everyone’s desire to nurture and stimulate the young minds to reach their full potential in their chosen fields in order to create a new generation of responsible leaders who are able to redesign a sustainable world and a better life for all (Lilac 2012).
Post colonialism is the study of the legacy of the era of European, and sometimes American, direct global domination, which ended roughly in the mid-20th century, and the residual political, socio-economic, and psychological effects of that colonial history (Ndege 2009). The colonial powers came to foreign states and destroyed main parts of native traditional culture and replaced them with their own ones. This led to conflict when countries became independent and suddenly faced the challenge of developing a new nationwide identity and self confidence. In this essay I will discuss popular culture in Kenya and how it is manifested in some aspects of life, and then
References: Thiongo, N.W. (1965). The River Between. (Volume 17). London: Heinemann. Melisa E.W. (2011). The Impact of Technology on Standards of Behavior in the early 20th Century. Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 44, no3. Graebnesr, W. (1992). Sokomoko: Popular Culture in East Africa, Volume 9 Rodopi. Crystal. B, Neil. L. (2002). Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial studies Vol. 7, No. 2. Lilac, O (2012, August 18). Popular Culture, Education and Ubuntu in Kenya, Design magazine. Ndege, O.P. (2009, August 6). Colonialism and its legacies in Kenya. Kenya: Moi University.