What Does it Mean to be a Man? The Aesthetics of Telling Crisis’ and Conflicts in Ngebe Gaa and Detox

Authors

  • Fredrick Mbogo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i21.371

Keywords:

perception of man, contemporary Kenyan film, performance, Kalenjin world view, Rift Valley, Kenya

Abstract

This paper is a reading of two films, namely, Ngebe Gaa (2019) and Detox (2016), in an attempt to discuss a supposed crisis of manhood in Eldoret, and the larger part of the North Rift Valley area of Kenya. The paper employs perspectives from canonical African works such as Okot P’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, as well as Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s I Will Marry When I Want to uncover examples of the meanings of “man” in patriarchal settings but also in situations where shifts in economic, social and political life have taken place. In Ngebe Gaa, for instance, Mzee Maina, the main character, is set in his ways. His father-to-daughter relationship with his biological daughter, Chemesunde, is very much defined by reliable conceptions of being a man in his society. But this is thrown into confusion once matters get out of hand for him financially. This paper is thus interested in this troubled in-between identity that redefines “man” within such rural and peri-urban spaces, where the economy is not diverse, and there is a seeming non-changing culture on the surface but rapid reformulations of ideas at individual levels. Eldoret and its environs, where these two films are set, occupy such spaces. They can never escape the dominant suggestion that is specifically Kalenjin on what a “man” is, especially because the majority of the people around Eldoret and its outskirts are predominantly of the Kalenjin ethnic communities. Through cross-references from texts that explore the Kalenjin world view(s) such as in Kiprotich Arap Sambu’s The Misiri Legend Explored and Bill Ruto and Kipng’etich Maritim’s Kipsigis Heritage, this paper digs into the meanings of “man” and how often times they have been undermined in the worlds presented in Ngebe Gaa and Detox.

 

Article received: December 18, 2019; Article accepted: January 31, 2020; Published online: April 15, 2020; Original scholarly paper

Author Biography

Fredrick Mbogo

Fredrick Mbogo teaches in the Department of Music and Performing Arts at The Technical University of Kenya. His research areas include the meeting points of live theatre and screen acting in Kenya. He has recently co-edited a book titled Theatre Arts Education: Approaches in Kenya. He has contributed a number of academic papers and book chapters in the areas of live and screen performance. He is also a playwright and stage director whose works have been staged in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and a Ph.D. from Moi University in Kenya.

References

References

Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40 (1988): 519–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3207893

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and The Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.

Kruger, Marie. “Just a Brilliant Disguise: Postcolonial Identities and the Performance of Gender.” The Nairobi Journal of Literature 1 (2003): 23–33.

Lajul, Wilfred. African Philosophy: Critical Dimensions. Kampala: Fountain Publishers, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2tp740c

P’Bitek, Okot. Song of Lawino. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 2013.

Rutto, Bill and Kipng’etich Maritim. Kipsigis Heritage and Origin of Clans. Nairobi: Spotlight Publishers, 2016.

Sambu, Kipkoeech Araap. The Misiri Legend Explored: A Linguistic Inquiry into the Kalenjin Peoples Oral Traditions of Ancient Egyptian Origin. Nairobi: University of Nairobi Press, 2011.

Soyinka, Wole. The Lion and The Jewel. Ibadan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Wa Thiong’o, Ngugi, and Ngugi wa Mirii. I Will Marry When I Want. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1977.

Filmography

Bii, Cosmas. Ngebe Gaa. Director. 2019. Eldoret: Eldoret Film Festival

Kiragu, Joan. Detox. Director. 2016. Nairobi/Eldoret: MU/Lightbox Africa

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i21.371 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i21.371

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Published

15.04.2020

How to Cite

Mbogo, F. (2020). What Does it Mean to be a Man? The Aesthetics of Telling Crisis’ and Conflicts in Ngebe Gaa and Detox. AM Journal of Art and Media Studies, (21), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.25038/am.v0i21.371

Issue

Section

Contemporary East African Aesthetics – Guest Section Editor Lydia W. Muthuma