Political Imagery and Symbolism in Daniel Owino Misiani‟S Benga Songs

Abstract

Misiani was a great musician and pioneer of benga music. He sang about almost about anything and everything, but people remember him for his political songs. He sang when Kenya was still under firm grip of despotic politics of both Kenyatta the first president of Kenya and later Moi and Kibaki the second and third presidents respectively. Fearlessly, Misiani confronts the politics of the day using his music. Despite the fact that his songs were/are loaded with imagery and symbolism, not many scholars have analysed this work from literary perspective. The messages in Misiani‟s political songs are figuratively packaged making him a master of political language; language that is full of metaphors, symbolisms, personification. This study therefore aimed at exploring the imagery and symbolism employed by Misiani in constructing politics in his songs. The objectives were to: determine the extent to which Misiani's socio-cultural background influences the choice and use of symbolism and imagery in his music; evaluate how the repressive and hegemonic Kenyan political past shaped the artistic nature of Misiani‟s music; to examine how imagery and symbolism construct the theme of politics in Misiani's songs. The study used concepts from reader response theory where the primary focus falls on the reader and the process of reading rather than on the author or the text. The study also used concepts taken from the political analysis of the Italian Marxists Antonio Gramsci, on the development of the theory of hegemony. It sees music as popular culture, which is a site of struggle between the forces of resistance of subordinate groups, and the forces of incorporation of dominant groups in the society. This study adopted the descriptive research design. The study used purposive sampling technique to select information rich texts among Misiani‟s songs. The study sampled out 35 songs. The lyrics of the songs were transcribed, translated into English and then analyzed using textual analysis approach in relation to the objectives of the study. This study found out and confirmed the literariness of Misiani‟s music. The study found that Misiani uses imagery and symbolism to address the politics of Kenya.