| dc.description.abstract | This is a study of Unyago songs (poems). It investigates the structure of the songs
and their socio-cultural contexts. Among other related issues, the study examines
Unyago as a Women's specific institution for initiation.
The location of the study is Kisumu Municipality and its environs. The informants
are Kiswahili speaking clusters, and the research methodology includes a feminist
literary framework,the ethnographic theory, participant - observation and
unstructured interviews.
The major finding of this study is the Unyago is a theatrical stage,in it there is the
performance of songs, dances and con~ersations;in it women's desires, perceptions of
themselves, their sexual and gender identity, and their own lives are expressed;the
male gender, sexual politics and relationships between men and women are revealed.
We discover that the Unyago performance encompasses art and life and that the two
are inseparable.
Ultimately, the findings establish that, through Unyago rituals, girls change and
mature into women who in turn acquire their gender identity.
The social interactions opportuned by Unyago, empower the women to exert control
over their lives and that of their society as a whole. This empowerment gives them
what the thesis calls a voice, the voice is identifiable as a process that starts with the
girls' puberty, through all the Unyago and Unyago-related ceremonies like dari ya | en_US |
