Inge Brinkman - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Inge Brinkman
Mobile Africa Revisited: A Comparative Study of the Relations between New Communication Technologies and New Social Spaces (Chad, Mali, Cameroon, Angola, Tanzania)
Het relaas van een boekhandel in Nairobi
Introduction: mobile communities and new social spaces in Africa
Les provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo d’après les sources historiques
The pilot study focused on the so-called micro level of research. This does not mean that we only... more The pilot study focused on the so-called micro level of research. This does not mean that we only come up with micro-level analysis but in our methodology the emphasis rests on the analysis of cultural and social processes that are in play at the level of family life and social networks in relation to the introduction of the mobile phone. The qualitative methods used in this study were mainly the in-depth interview with open-ended questions and observation of mobile phone use and the integration of the mobile phone in daily life. The open interviews were conducted by all the members of the team. Two Sudanese researchers-both resident in Khartoum, one familiar with the Juba context, the other with Karima-carried out interviews for about three weeks in Juba, Khartoum and Karima. Most of these were held in colloquial Arabic and transcribed into English. The two Dutch researchers each went to Sudan for two weeks to supervise the two Sudanese researchers, carry out their own interviews and become acquainted with the research situation in the country. 4 A list of the interviews held can be found at the end of this report. The case studies each called for a unique approach, leading to different directions of inquiry. The case study in Karima entitled 'New social configurations in Karima' concerns a small town in the northern state of Sudan where the mobile phone has been introduced only relatively recently. It reveals the relationship between the mobile phone and the fluctuating dynamics of the overall transport and communication sector. The research team followed a family and their daily lives and observed their ordinary usage of the mobile phone; thus allowing a perspective 'from below' on mobile phone usage and seeing the appropriation processes in connection with life in a small town with its own rhythm and connections. In the capital Khartoum, which forms the second case-study area, mobile phones have been present now for almost a decade. Here the emphasis is on mobile phone culture and the debate surrounding this new communication technology. As these debates concern adolescents in particular as an important and innovative group of end-users, we chose to focus on the student population and its various networks. In the Juba case study, we considered the mobile phone in view of the legacy of the war and the economic prospects and problems connected with the postwar context. The emphasis was therefore placed on interviews with business people who creatively struggle with the particular disadvantages and possibilities of the Juba market. Special attention is paid to the historical context of communication in Sudan. This aspect of the research is based on a literature review of the history of communication in Sudan as well as on oral history, especially interviews with older people. The short research period did not allow time for any archival research. Qualitative research requires research relations that are built on trust and long-term observation, and in-depth knowledge has not yet been built up because of time constraints. This report should thus be considered as preliminary and indicative only of the possible directions in which the relationship between mobile phones and society in Sudan may develop. 4 Inge Brinkman went for two weeks from July 18 to august 4 2007, she visited Juba and Khartoum; Mirjam went in September (20-29), Khartoum and a visit on Sept 24 with Zain staff to O'Beid and El Fasher) and from November 20 to December 2, 2007 (Khartoum, Karima, Juba). The production of the film was done during this period together with Sjoerd Sijsma. Inge met Hisham and Peter and started the research, Mirjam's visits had the character of follow-up and supervision. These visits were in close collaboration with Hisham and Peter.
Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft. Die großen Land- und Minengesellschaften
The Journal of African History, 1997
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Birth of a Dream Weaver. A Writer’s Awakening (London: Harvill Secker (Pinguin Vintage, 2016)
Het gevecht om Mau Mau : censuur en geschiedenis in Kenia
A war for people' Civilians, mobility, and legitimacy in south-east Angola during the MPLA's war for independence
Erik Kennes & Miles Larmer, The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa
Van schrift naar mondeling: Kameme’s “Book Club” in Kenia
Minette Mans, Music as an instrument of diversity and unity: notes on a Namibian landscape
Virginie Mouanda Kibinde, Beneath the black sun of Cabinda (Stellenbosch: SUN Press 2015): Africa Book Link, Summer 2016
Congolese Wiskunde” tegen stereotypen over Afrika
During the colonial era the South-Eastern parts of Angola (Kuando Kubango) were called the “lands... more During the colonial era the South-Eastern parts of Angola (Kuando Kubango) were called the “lands at the end of the earth”. This marginalised region was at the frontline during the civil war in Angola and a large part of the population was forced to flee. Since the peace accords in 2002, this region has, however, become central in the development efforts of the Angolan state and authorities have re-baptised it “the lands of progress”. Transport and communication form an important ingredient of these development efforts, mainly conceived of in terms of technology: road construction, railway infrastructure, radio, television and other mass media, and also mobile telephony and internet. For the people in this region, mobility is not just a means to get from one place to the other, in many ways it forms the gist of life; the freedom to choose one’s routes and whereabouts is highly valued in these societies. The war interfered with individuals’ options in this respect and it is in this s...
Local stories, global discussions: websites, politics and identity in African contexts
Refugees on routes: Congo/Zaire and the war in Northern Angola (1961-1974)
... Page 2. 2 approach will thus not suffice to understand this theme in full. An important contr... more ... Page 2. 2 approach will thus not suffice to understand this theme in full. An important contribution in this respect is an article by Kurt Lewin, written shortly after the First World War. Lewin explains that a peace landscape is endless, round, it knows no front. ...
Kathleen E. Sheldon. Pounders of grain. A history of women, work, and politics in Mozambique
Mobile phones in mobile margins : communication, mobility and social hierarchies in / from Africa
The mobile phone has become part of the changing history of communication cultures in Africa. Ins... more The mobile phone has become part of the changing history of communication cultures in Africa. Instead of viewing the introduction of new communication technologies as ‘having major effects’, as is often the case in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) circles, we view the relation between technologies and society as interactive. New technologies, such as the mobile phone, may indeed lead to social change, yet at the same time people appropriate new technologies in creative and unexpected ways and make them fit into their social repertoires, thereby changing earlier meanings of the same technology. In this contribution we will discuss so-called marginal mobile communities in Africa in their interaction with new ICT. With this we mean communities consisting of strings of people spread over vast social spaces, combining migrants in various places and people that continue to live in the ‘marginal’ regions. Marginality is understood as related to absence of ...
Mobile Africa Revisited: A Comparative Study of the Relations between New Communication Technologies and New Social Spaces (Chad, Mali, Cameroon, Angola, Tanzania)
Het relaas van een boekhandel in Nairobi
Introduction: mobile communities and new social spaces in Africa
Les provinces septentrionales du royaume Kongo d’après les sources historiques
The pilot study focused on the so-called micro level of research. This does not mean that we only... more The pilot study focused on the so-called micro level of research. This does not mean that we only come up with micro-level analysis but in our methodology the emphasis rests on the analysis of cultural and social processes that are in play at the level of family life and social networks in relation to the introduction of the mobile phone. The qualitative methods used in this study were mainly the in-depth interview with open-ended questions and observation of mobile phone use and the integration of the mobile phone in daily life. The open interviews were conducted by all the members of the team. Two Sudanese researchers-both resident in Khartoum, one familiar with the Juba context, the other with Karima-carried out interviews for about three weeks in Juba, Khartoum and Karima. Most of these were held in colloquial Arabic and transcribed into English. The two Dutch researchers each went to Sudan for two weeks to supervise the two Sudanese researchers, carry out their own interviews and become acquainted with the research situation in the country. 4 A list of the interviews held can be found at the end of this report. The case studies each called for a unique approach, leading to different directions of inquiry. The case study in Karima entitled 'New social configurations in Karima' concerns a small town in the northern state of Sudan where the mobile phone has been introduced only relatively recently. It reveals the relationship between the mobile phone and the fluctuating dynamics of the overall transport and communication sector. The research team followed a family and their daily lives and observed their ordinary usage of the mobile phone; thus allowing a perspective 'from below' on mobile phone usage and seeing the appropriation processes in connection with life in a small town with its own rhythm and connections. In the capital Khartoum, which forms the second case-study area, mobile phones have been present now for almost a decade. Here the emphasis is on mobile phone culture and the debate surrounding this new communication technology. As these debates concern adolescents in particular as an important and innovative group of end-users, we chose to focus on the student population and its various networks. In the Juba case study, we considered the mobile phone in view of the legacy of the war and the economic prospects and problems connected with the postwar context. The emphasis was therefore placed on interviews with business people who creatively struggle with the particular disadvantages and possibilities of the Juba market. Special attention is paid to the historical context of communication in Sudan. This aspect of the research is based on a literature review of the history of communication in Sudan as well as on oral history, especially interviews with older people. The short research period did not allow time for any archival research. Qualitative research requires research relations that are built on trust and long-term observation, and in-depth knowledge has not yet been built up because of time constraints. This report should thus be considered as preliminary and indicative only of the possible directions in which the relationship between mobile phones and society in Sudan may develop. 4 Inge Brinkman went for two weeks from July 18 to august 4 2007, she visited Juba and Khartoum; Mirjam went in September (20-29), Khartoum and a visit on Sept 24 with Zain staff to O'Beid and El Fasher) and from November 20 to December 2, 2007 (Khartoum, Karima, Juba). The production of the film was done during this period together with Sjoerd Sijsma. Inge met Hisham and Peter and started the research, Mirjam's visits had the character of follow-up and supervision. These visits were in close collaboration with Hisham and Peter.
Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft. Die großen Land- und Minengesellschaften
The Journal of African History, 1997
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Birth of a Dream Weaver. A Writer’s Awakening (London: Harvill Secker (Pinguin Vintage, 2016)
Het gevecht om Mau Mau : censuur en geschiedenis in Kenia
A war for people' Civilians, mobility, and legitimacy in south-east Angola during the MPLA's war for independence
Erik Kennes & Miles Larmer, The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa
Van schrift naar mondeling: Kameme’s “Book Club” in Kenia
Minette Mans, Music as an instrument of diversity and unity: notes on a Namibian landscape
Virginie Mouanda Kibinde, Beneath the black sun of Cabinda (Stellenbosch: SUN Press 2015): Africa Book Link, Summer 2016
Congolese Wiskunde” tegen stereotypen over Afrika
During the colonial era the South-Eastern parts of Angola (Kuando Kubango) were called the “lands... more During the colonial era the South-Eastern parts of Angola (Kuando Kubango) were called the “lands at the end of the earth”. This marginalised region was at the frontline during the civil war in Angola and a large part of the population was forced to flee. Since the peace accords in 2002, this region has, however, become central in the development efforts of the Angolan state and authorities have re-baptised it “the lands of progress”. Transport and communication form an important ingredient of these development efforts, mainly conceived of in terms of technology: road construction, railway infrastructure, radio, television and other mass media, and also mobile telephony and internet. For the people in this region, mobility is not just a means to get from one place to the other, in many ways it forms the gist of life; the freedom to choose one’s routes and whereabouts is highly valued in these societies. The war interfered with individuals’ options in this respect and it is in this s...
Local stories, global discussions: websites, politics and identity in African contexts
Refugees on routes: Congo/Zaire and the war in Northern Angola (1961-1974)
... Page 2. 2 approach will thus not suffice to understand this theme in full. An important contr... more ... Page 2. 2 approach will thus not suffice to understand this theme in full. An important contribution in this respect is an article by Kurt Lewin, written shortly after the First World War. Lewin explains that a peace landscape is endless, round, it knows no front. ...
Kathleen E. Sheldon. Pounders of grain. A history of women, work, and politics in Mozambique
Mobile phones in mobile margins : communication, mobility and social hierarchies in / from Africa
The mobile phone has become part of the changing history of communication cultures in Africa. Ins... more The mobile phone has become part of the changing history of communication cultures in Africa. Instead of viewing the introduction of new communication technologies as ‘having major effects’, as is often the case in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) circles, we view the relation between technologies and society as interactive. New technologies, such as the mobile phone, may indeed lead to social change, yet at the same time people appropriate new technologies in creative and unexpected ways and make them fit into their social repertoires, thereby changing earlier meanings of the same technology. In this contribution we will discuss so-called marginal mobile communities in Africa in their interaction with new ICT. With this we mean communities consisting of strings of people spread over vast social spaces, combining migrants in various places and people that continue to live in the ‘marginal’ regions. Marginality is understood as related to absence of ...
Review of: ‘Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft. Die großen Land- und Minengesellschaften.’ Journal of African History 38, 2 (1997) pp. 326-327.
Review of: ‘Frans Huyzendveld, Die ostafrikanische Schweiz: Plantages, planters en plattelandsontwikkeling in West-Usambara, Oost-Afrika, ca. 1870-1930.’ Journal of African History 39, 1 (1998) pp. 154-155.
Review of: ‘Peter Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families: stories from Rwanda.’ Africa Today 47, 1 (2000) pp. 141-142.
Review of: ‘Linda Heywood, Contested power in Angola: 1840s to the present’, Journal of African History 42, 3 (2001) pp. 508-509.
Review of: ‘Luise White, Speaking with vampires. Rumor and history in colonial Africa’, Africa Today 48, 1 (2001) pp. 162-163.
Review of ‘Jacob K. Olupona (ed.), African spirituality. Forms, meanings and expressions’, Africa Today 49, 4 (2002) pp. 148-150.
Review of: ‘Jean Allman, Susan Geiger, and Nakanyike Musisi (eds.), Women in African colonial histories’, Africa Today. 50, 2 (2003) pp. 89-90.
Review of: ‘Axel Fleisch and Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig, The Kavango peoples in the past. Local historiographies from Northern Namibia’, Journal of African History 1, 45 (2004) pp. 181-182.
African Guerrillas
African Studies Review, 1999
Review of Sabine Brandstätter, Travel literature on the African continent in the 19th century: Analysis of the various Influences on ‘Heart of Darkness’ and ‘Travels in West Africa’ (Saarbrücken: Akademikerverlag, 2014), Africa Book Link (Spring 2016)
Review of: Virginie Mouanda Kibinde, Beneath the black sun of Cabinda (Stellenbosch: SUN Press 2015), Africa Book Link (Summer 2016)
Review of: Erik Kennes & Miles Larmer, The Katangese Gendarmes and War in Central Africa, Comparativ 4 (2016) pp. 119-121.
Review of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Birth of a Dream Weaver. A Writer’s Awakening (London: Harvill Secker (Pinguin Vintage, 2016)
Het gevaar van een leesgroep in Angola
Terreur en literatuur: Teju Cole over 9/11, Boko Haram en de Westgate Mall-aanslag
Jij verdient de Nobelprijs
‘Het relaas van een boekhandel in Nairobi’
‘Kwani? Een literair netwerk’
‘Kennismaken met het kolonialisme’
Al 95 jaar strijdt PEN voor persvrijheid en dat blijft een noodzaak
'Een goede naam is meer waard dan rijkdom'
Van schrift naar mondeling: Kameme’s “Book Club” in Kenia
Omgekeerde-ontdekkingsreizen
“Congolese Wiskunde” tegen stereotypen over Afrika
Een Afrikaanse stadsdichter in Granada
De lezer is een voyeur, en dus medeplichtig
Afrikaanse letterkunde Tradities, genres, auteurs en ontwikkelingen
Afrika is niet alleen de bakermat van de mensheid, maar ook van prachtige literatuur. Naast oude ... more Afrika is niet alleen de bakermat van de mensheid, maar ook van prachtige literatuur. Naast oude schriftculturen, bijvoorbeeld in Ethiopië, Noord-Afrika en het Swahiligebied, is het continent rijk aan uiteenlopende mondelinge genres, van mythe tot spreekwoord, van liefdespoëzie tot epos en theater. Deze mondelinge tradities blijken een bron van inspiratie voor de geschreven literatuur, die ook beïnvloed is door een Europees genre als de roman. Er is een rijke verscheidenheid aan literaire teksten in Afrikaanse talen, terwijl de auteurs die in Europese talen schrijven ook internationaal volop in de schijnwerpers staan, net als Europese auteurs van Afrikaanse afkomst. Hun werk wordt steeds vaker in het Nederlands vertaald en sommigen schrijven in het Nederlands.
Afrika's literatuur kent verrassende invalshoeken en ontwikkelingen, die ook hun weg vinden naar nieuwe media, waar geëxperimenteerd wordt met een rijkdom aan literaire vormen. Oude en nieuwe tradities, genres, auteurs en ontwikkelingen komen in Afrikaanse letterkunde ruim aan bod.
BOOK EDITION: The Kongo Kingdom. The Origins, Dynamics and Cosmopolitan Culture of an African Polity
Cambridge University Press, 2018
The Kongo kingdom, which arose in the Atlantic Coast region of West-Central Africa, is a famous e... more The Kongo kingdom, which arose in the Atlantic Coast region of West-Central Africa, is a famous emblem of Africa's past yet little is still known of its origins and early history. This book sheds new light on that all important period and goes on to explain the significance of its cosmopolitan culture in the wider world. Bringing together different new strands of historical evidence as well as scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, art history, history and linguistics, it is the first book to approach the history of this famous Central African kingdom from a cross-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are written by distinguished and/or upcoming experts of Kongo history with a focus on political space, taking us through processes of centralisation and decentralisation, the historical politics of extraversion and internal dynamics, and the geographical distribution of aspects of material and immaterial Kongo culture.
General public (including academia) interested in socio-cultural History, Development Studies, es... more General public (including academia) interested in socio-cultural History, Development Studies, especially the praxis of development work and the history of development cooperation.
BOOK: „A war for people.’ Civilians, mobility, and legitimacy in south-east Angola during the MPLA’s war for independence (Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag 2005). 256 pp. (9783896453629)
BOOK: Singing in the bush. MPLA songs during the war for independence in south-east Angola (1966-1975) (Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag 2001). 110 pp. (9783896453556)
BOOK: Kikuyu gender norms and narratives (Leiden: CNWS publications 1996). 318 pp. (9789073782549)
Grandmother's Footsteps: Oral Tradition and South-East Angolan Narratives on the Colonial Encounter
ARTICLE: Inge Brinkman, ‘War, peace and nationality: in between south-east Angola and Rundu, Namibia’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 52, 3 (2018) 1-19.
This contribution revolves around the complexities of national belonging among Angolan immigrants... more This contribution revolves around the complexities of national
belonging among Angolan immigrants in Northern Namibia. In
state bureaucracies, people are meant to have just one national
identity and they are not encouraged to make any changes
therein. For many south-east Angolan people currently resident
in Rundu, Namibia, however, such simplicity denies their personal
history. They have lived in south-east Angola, western Zambia and
northern Namibia amongst people of their own kith and kin, and
feel that they have rights and obligations in all three contexts. By
taking a diachronic perspective with the case of Angolan immigrants
in Rundu, Namibia (1960s–2012), this contribution traces
the history of ideas about nationality and the conceptualization of
war and peace. It proposes to view these as related to longstanding
notions of real and imagined communities, but at the same
time as changing in relation to the circumstances and varying
according to personal history.
ARTICLE: “Social diary and news production: audience and identity in social media during elections in Kenya (2007)”, Journal of Eastern African Studies (2018, special issue on “Digital Publics”).
Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2018
This paper offers an analysis of the politics of (self-)referentiality on the Kenyan weblog kenya... more This paper offers an analysis of the politics of (self-)referentiality on the Kenyan weblog kenyanpundit.com during the elections of 2007 and their violent aftermath. It discusses news reporting on this website through the concept of a communication circuit, and the changing forms of address by conceptualising the narrative as a social diary. These two parallel routes of interpretation, the first spatial and the second temporal, are framed in the wider context of the role of the media during the Kenyan electoral period. The analysis shows the boundaries between news producers and publics to be blurred, even if the blogger Kenyan Pundit controlled the final publication of the writing in her function as gate-keeper to the blog. The online space provides the possibility for a participatory readership that is in principle limitless, but it is shown that this online space does not render older axes of debate – such as the nation and ethnicity – obsolete. I argue that the weblog’s community engage in evaluative and emotive debates about the news. However, these debates do not constitute a uniform whole; rather, the blog posts and comments on Kenyanpundit.com form a narrative diary that establishes the weblog as processual rather than static.
ARTICLE: ‘A canção política, as religiões e o conceito de ‘cultura popular’, Kulonga (2010).
Si le concept de communauté demeure largement associé à sa dimension géographique, les études sur... more Si le concept de communauté demeure largement associé à sa dimension géographique, les études sur le transnationalisme dans les années 1990 ont conduit envisager la communauté comme un réseau plutôt que comme un lieu. C'est dans cette optique que s'inscrit cette contribution, en développant l'idée de « chaînes de personnes » liées entre elles pour former une communauté. Les recherches menées au Cameroun et en Angola/Namibie montrent l'ancienneté d'une telle notion de communauté, dont les membres ont toujours été considérés comme des chaînes d'individus dans des lieux divers. Au fur et à mesure des contacts qu'ils établissent les uns avec les autres, les individus construisent et entretiennent des relations communautaires. Les nouvelles technologies de l'information et de la communication permettent de se focaliser sur la mobilité et les interrelations entre les personnes à travers leurs histoires de vie et la manière dont ils utilisent ces des nouvelles technologies au quotidien.
A B S T R A C T : Accusations, trials and executions of witches and sell-outs frequently occurred... more A B S T R A C T : Accusations, trials and executions of witches and sell-outs frequently occurred at the MPLA's Eastern Front in Angola (1966-75). These events do not fit the general self-portrayal of the MPLA as a socialist, secular movement that was supported by the Angolan population without recourse to force. The people interviewed, mostly rural civilians from south-east Angola who lived under MPLA control, suggested many links between treason and witchcraft, yet at the same time differentiated between these accusations. Witchcraft cases were often initiated by civilian families and the accused were mostly people who had a longstanding reputation of being a witch. While the MPLA leadership was often suspicious of the accusations of witchcraft, many civilians regarded the trials of witches as more legitimate than those of treason. Civilians held that the accusation of treason was often used by the guerrillas to get rid of political or personal rivals and/or to control the population. The accusations showed few patterns and cannot be interpreted as deliberate attempts to overcome structural forms of domination, of chiefs over followers, men over women or old over young.
ARTICLE: ‘Bury my bones, but keep my words. Geschiedenis en oraliteit in Afrika,’ Groniek 27, 122 (1993) pp. 9-20.
ARTICLE: ‘Het gevecht om Mau Mau: censuur en geschiedenis in Kenia,’ Derde Wereld 12, 1 (1993) pp. 43-54.
Journal of Southern African Studies, 1999
... of interest in ethnic identity was shared by all groups of informants, be they male or female... more ... of interest in ethnic identity was shared by all groups of informants, be they male or female, young or old, refugees or immigrants who had settled in the Kavango region before the war, people who had come through Zambia or immigrants who had come straight from Angola. ...
African studies review, 2004
Page 1. Language, Names, and War: The Case of Angola Inge Brinkman Abstract: This article shows t... more Page 1. Language, Names, and War: The Case of Angola Inge Brinkman Abstract: This article shows the links between naming practices and war. The focus is on MPLA war names used during the Angolan struggle for independence. ...
aBStract This article outlines the development of mobile telephony in the nascent Republic of Sou... more aBStract This article outlines the development of mobile telephony in the nascent Republic of South Sudan (ROSS). We focus specifically on Juba, during turbulent times from the end of the second Sudanese Civil War in 2005 to just after independence in 2011. We highlight the complicated political relations behind the establishment of mobile networks and the main functions and importance of the mobile phone throughout this period. Despite major technical obstacles, reconnecting with (war-) dispersed relatives, providing security in the post-CPA period marked by high insecurity and symbolizing hope and access to markets were important features of mobile phone use in Juba. Mobile phones were also essential to the rapid development of migrant dominated trade and business. Through this case-study we aim to shed light on the way in which (new) communication technologies become entangled with mobility, politics and entrepreneurship in a (post)war setting characterized by a displacement economy.
BOOK CHAPTER: “To Make Book”: A Conceptual Historical Approach to Kongo Book Cultures (Sixteenth–Nineteenth Centuries)’, in: Koen Bostoen & Inge Brinkman (eds.), The Kongo Kingdom. The Origins and Dynamics of an African Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2018), pp. 216-234.
Cambridge University Press, 2018
BOOK CHAPTER: ‘Introduction: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Kongo History’, in: Koen Bostoen en Inge Brinkman (eds.), The Kongo Kingdom. The Origins and Dynamics of an African Polity. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2018) pp. 1-14.
BOOK CHAPTER: ‘‘Representing performance. Memories of song, music and dance in the autobiographical writing of Ngũgĩ and Wainaina”. in: Emily Akuno, Kahithe Kiiru and Maina Mutonya (eds.), Music and Dance Research in East Africa (Nairobi: IFRA and Twaweza Communications 2018) pp. 120-134.
Representing performance. Memories of music and dance in Kenyan autobiographical writing. Inge B... more Representing performance.
Memories of music and dance in Kenyan autobiographical writing.
Inge Brinkman
Prof. African Studies
Section: African Languages and Cultures
Ghent University
Key words: Performance; Representation; Kenya; Autobiographies.
The way in which oral literary traditions have entered African written literatures has received considerable scholarly attention. In most cases the focus is on contents: we learn about the insertion of proverbs, songs and narratives into writing. At times, form is also discussed, including the employment of onomatopoeias, repetition and other stylistic elements characteristic of oral genres in written literatures (there exists a vast body of literature, with Eileen Julien, 1992 as a landmark).
This paper aims at contributing to these analyses by focusing on music and dance as represented in Kenyan autobiographical writing. Life writing is the most practiced genre in Kenya, but literary analyses are mostly devoted to the novel (Peterson, 2012). If at all, the autobiography is largely discussed as historical source for the interpretation of political history (Clough 1997). Even if this theme is framed in narrative terms (Atieno-Odhiambo and Lonsdale 2003), relations between autobiography and the wider political context are regarded as the most important feature of these autobiographies. While such an approach may hold water, many authors detail the role that music, dance, songs, narratives and other oral forms played not only in their childhood, but in their lives on the whole.
These representations, reflections, and memories of performance in African literature in general, and in Kenyan autobiographical writing in particular, have been left little analysed. How do authors remember these oral performances and what meanings are attributed to them? What is said in these texts about the relations between dance and society, music and history?
These questions will obviously not lead to an analysis of performance as such, but approach music and dance from a meta-level, investigating authors’ statements about the role of music and dance in their lives. This may help us to assess performance, in this case particularly music and dance, as part of Kenya’s cultural history, both contemporary and in retrospect.
Preliminary bibliography
- Atieno Odhiambo, E.S. and John Lonsdale (eds) Mau Mau and Nationhood, Arms, authority and narration (Oxford, Nairobi, Athens James Currey, 2003).
- Clough, Marshall S., Mau Mau Memoirs: History, Memory and Politics (Boulder 1997).
- Julien, Eileen, African novels and the question of orality (1992).
- Lejeune, Philippe, Le pacte autobiographique (Paris 1975) pp. 137-159.
- Neubauer, Carol, One voice speaking for many: The Mau Mau Movement and Kenyan Autobiography, Journal of Modern African Studies 21, 1 (1983) pp. 113-131.
- Obiechina, Emmanuel, Culture, Tradition and Society in the West African Novel (Cambridge 1975), esp Chapter: Nature, music and art, 42-81.
- Olney, James, Tell me Africa: an approach to African literature (Princeton 1973).
- Peterson, Derek R., Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival (2012).
- Peterson, Derek R., ‘Casting Characters: Autobiography and Political Imagination in Central Kenya‘, Research in African Literatures 37, 3 (2006) 176-192.
- Pugliese, Cristiana, ‘The life-story in Kenya: a bibliography (1920-1984)’, Africa (Rome), 41, 3 (1986) 440-446.
Preliminary list of autobiographical writing
- Barnett, Don and Karari Njama, Mau Mau from within (New York, London 1966).
- Barnett, Don (ed.), The urban guerrilla: the story of Mohamed Mathu (Richmond 1974).
- Barnett, Don (ed.), Man in the middle: the story of Ngugi Kabiro (Richmond 1973).
- Barnett, Don (ed.), The hardcore: the story of Karigo Muchai (Richmond 1973).
- Gakaara wa Wanjaû, Mwandĩki wa Mau Mau ithaamĩrio-inĩ (Nairobi etc. 1983).
- Gakaara wa Wanjaû, Mau Mau author in detention (Nairobi 1988).
- Gatheru, Mugo, Child of two worlds (1964).
- Gikaru, Muga, Land of sunshine: scenes of life in Kenya before Mau Mau (1958).
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Elections are a rare phenomenon in Angolan political life. The first post-independence elections,... more Elections are a rare phenomenon in Angolan political life. The first post-independence elections, held in 1992 after a period of prolonged warfare, are remembered bitterly as the parties involved returned to war after the results were made public. UNITA and its long time president Jonas Savimbi did not accept the victory of the state party MPLA and its president José Eduardo do Santos, and the country once more descended into violence. By and large then, elections came to be associated with war for the civilian population: the widespread saying: 'MPLA rouba, UNITA mata' (MPLA steals, UNITA kills) dates from this period. Shortly before the turn of the century MPLA forces launched a large scale offensive against UNITA: UNITA was forced on to the defensive and in 2002 Savimbi died in combat. Subsequently negotiations between MPLA and UNITA started, and some months later a ceasefire agreement was signed. UNITA was transformed into a political party and a huge demobilization and disarmament campaign was organised. The end of the war opened the way for new elections, and although postponed several times, elections for the national assembly were finally scheduled for 5 September 2008 and presidential elections for the summer of 2009. At the international level much was expected of the new political developments in Angola: the elections were seen as an important step not only in the peace-building process, but also towards constructing a democratic political culture. Angola's economy is rapidly growing now that there is peace: oil and diamonds attract investors from many countries while in the transport and construction sector Chinese interests are especially active. These developments hardly seem to be accompanied with transparency and accountable rule. Angola's political culture is known for its high incidence of corruption at all levels and the disproportionate wealth of its ruling elite that has amassed luxury and riches through questionable or plainly illegitimate oil deals. Furthermore, Angola's record for human rights compliance is far from exemplary: police intimidation, arbitrary detention and censorship having occurred frequently not only during but also since the end of the war. The decision to have parliamentary and presidential elections was welcomed as a sign that there was a will to change this and work towards more freedom, political rights and openness. With elections in countries such as Zimbabwe and Kenya being accompanied by large-scale violence, the Angolan elections were hoped to set a new example in the region. On 5 September 2008 parliamentary elections were held in Angola. The preparations for the elections were not faultless, and both organisational problems and debatable decisions created tensions. Of the 140 existing parties in Angola only fourteen were registered for the 2008 elections, of which the MPLA, UNITA and the FNLA were the oldest, having already played a role in the war against colonialism. Other parties did participate in the 1992 elections, and two newly formed parties were included for registration. In the pre-election period, several parties lodged complaints against the MPLA, accusing it of abusing its position as government party to secure better access
Africa Book Link, Autumn 2017: Editorial