Lyrical Music, Language And Meaning In Kenyan Politics

Lyrical Music, Language and Meaning in Kenyan Politics: An Exploration of Unbwogable and Kibaki Aendelee

By Kitche Magak, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of Linguistics, Languages and Literature
Maseno University, Kenya

Abstract

This article explores how the language of lyrical music (hereafter referred to as music or song) creates contextual meaning in political discourse in Kenya.   Two popular Kenyan General Elections songs, Unbwobagle and Kibaki Aendelee, are used to examine this thesis.   The paper adopts Reader Response Theory to posit that the language and meaning of music is established within the transaction between the text (music) and the listener. music in itself possesses no fixed and final meaning or value therefore there is no one "correct" meaning. Its meaning and value is created by the "dialogic," interaction between the listener and the text.   The paper further argues that the meaning of music only exists when it is performed.   The article concludes that the impact of any song in a political discourse transcends the aim for which the song was composed.

In 2002, the Kenyan hip-hop duo Giddi Giddi Majji-Majji released a new single hit, Unbwogable, which became the political mantra of the National Rainbow Coalition of Kenya (NARC), a loose unity of over fifteen (15) political parties with no recognizable ideology except the single-minded ambition to dislodge Kenya National African Union (KANU) from its nearly 40 years of dominance of political power. Within weeks of its release, Unbwogable, whose Luo, Sheng’[1] and English lyrics combined with a catchy danceable beat, became an instant political anthem, dominating number one slot in the local music chart for the entire period of the General Elections campaigns and into the first few months of NARC victory. It is noteworthy that the duo did not release the song for a political end.   Rather, the Opposition “hijacked” its soaring popularity that cut across class, creed, age and gender....