Volume 9: Virtually Global

Volume 9: Virtually Global Terry Gunnell In Memorium: Ezekiel Alembi Articles JoAnn Conrad Mapping America: Re-creating in the Cartographic Imagination Responses by Casey R. Schmitt and Jill Terry Rudy Pamela Conners Putting Words to Work: The Politics of Labor’s Vernacular Responses by Eugene Cooper, Barry Brummett, and Christina M. Smith Kerstin McGaughey Food in Binary: Identity and Interaction in Two German Food Blogs Response by Lucy Long Kimberly Ball UFO-Abduction Narratives and the Technology of Tradition Events and Debates Jack Zipes Sensationalist Scholarship: A Putative “New” History of Fairy Tales Rebecca Elliott Contesting the Spectacle: Global Lives as Counterpublic in the Context of Celebrity Activism Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen The Global Lives Project: Making New Media Matter in a Global World Book Reviews by Jessica Erberich, Benjamin Gatling, and Michelle Robinson © 2010, The University of California Cultural Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Folklore and Popular Culture Volume 9: Virtually Global In Memorium: Ezekiel Alembi....................................................................................................1 Terry Gunnell Articles and Responses Mapping America: Re-creating in the Cartographic Imagination..................3 JoAnn Conrad Responses: Casey R. Schmitt, Jill Terry Rudy Putting Words to Work: The Politics of Labor’s Vernacular............................39 Pamela Conners Responses: Eugene Cooper, Barry Brummett, Christina M. Smith Food in Binary: Identity and Interaction in Two German Food Blogs....69 Kerstin McGaughey Response: Lucy Long UFO-Abduction Narratives and the Technology of Tradition ......................99 Kimberly Ball Events and Debates Sensationalist Scholarship: A Putative “New” History of Fairy Tales........................................129 Jack Zipes Contesting the Spectacle: Global Lives as Counterpublic in the Context of Celebrity Activism....................150 Rebecca Elliott The Global Lives Project: Making New Media Matter in a Global World..............................146 Stina Marie Hasse Jørgensen Book Reviews Cinderella in America: A Book of Folk and Fairy Tales (McCarthy)...................R1 Jessica Erberich Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present (Sahadeo & Zanca)...............R2 Benjamin Gatling Imperial Masochism: British Fiction, Fantasy, and Social Class (Kucich)..........R5 Michelle Robinson i Editorial Board Fekade Azeze, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia Pertti J. Anttonen, University of Helsinki, Finland Hande Birkalan, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey Regina Bendix, Universität Göttingen, Germany Charles Briggs, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. Véronique Campion-Vincent, Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, France Linda Dégh, Indiana University, U.S.A. Valdimar Tr. Hafstein, University of Iceland, Reykjavik Jawaharlal Handoo, Central Institute of Indian Languages, India Galit Hasan-Rokem, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem Jason Baird Jackson, Indiana University, U.S.A. Kimberly Lau, University of California, Santa Cruz, U.S.A. John Lindow, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. Sabina Magliocco, California State University, Northridge, U.S.A. Jay Mechling, University of California, Davis, U.S.A. Fabio Mugnaini, University of Siena, Italy Sadhana Naithani, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Peter Shand, University of Auckland, New Zealand Francisco Vaz da Silva, University of Lisbon, Portugal Maiken Umbach, University of Manchester, England, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain Ülo Valk, University of Tartu, Estonia Fionnuala Carson Williams, Linen Hall Library, Belfast, Northern Ireland Ulrika Wolf-Knuts, Åbo Academy, Finland Staff Editorial Collective: Ted Biggs, Anthony Bak Buccitelli, Karen Miller, & Tok Thompson Review Editor: Elaine Yau Website Developer: Brooke Dykman Copy Editors: Fionnuala Carson Williams, Maggi Michel, Melissa Royer, Heather Blackmore, Jason Canniff, Christian Palmer, & Christiano Tambascia ii In Memorium: Ezekiel Alembi: IN MEMORIAM became a representative on the ISFNR board in 2008, later going on to serve EZEKIEL ALEMBI for more than ten years as the ISFNR (12.12.1960 – 17.01.2010) Vice-President representing Africa). Participation in these conferences brought n 17th January 2010, I received the him into contact with fellow academics in news that my good friend and Europe and America, and especially those Kenyan “brother” Ezekiel Alembi from Estonia and Finland where he first Ohad died of a stroke at his home in Nairobi took part in one of the Folklore Fellows at the tender age of 49. The news came as Summer Schools in Lammi in 1997. This a great shock to all of us who had come to brought him into close contact with Prof. know him over the years as a friend and Lauri Harvilahti at the University of fellow folklorist, not only because of the Helsinki. Lauri became a close friend and sudden loss to African folklore studies mentor, supervising Ezekiel’s Ph.D thesis (and folklore and ethnology in general), at the same university, “The Construction but more particularly for Ezekiel’s of the Abanyole Perceptions on Death extended family in Nairobi and Bunyore, through Oral Funeral Poetry” (2002), Kenya, and the countless students of which dealt with Abanyole death culture all ages (at home and abroad) who had in Ezekiel’s home area of Bunyore (see benefited from his teaching and positive http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/ encouragement over the years. hum/kultt/vk/alembi/). The story of Ezekiel’s education Typically, Ezekiel felt it necessary not is an example in itself, and no small only to add a summary to the thesis in achievement. Starting out in 1971 in the locallanguage of the people he was the local Ziwani primary school in the writing about, but also to defend the Vihiga region, in the countryside of thesis for a second time orally in front of Bunyore, in western Kenya, Ezekiel went the local people of Bunyore, an outdoor on to graduate from Ebwirany school in affair that lasted all day and included Kakamega, before taking his secondary not only deep discussions amongst the education in the Kakamega and Kangaru local people but also music and dance. Embu high schools in the same area. This, he felt, was the real defence (and the His university education in literature most difficult, even though his listeners and English language then took place proved to be very positive in the end). in Kenyatta University, Nairobi, where, Ezekiel Alembi’s approach to his in 1991, he wrote his MA thesis on local thesis was reflected in his other articles children’s songs. Soon after this, Ezekiel on folklore, such as “Telling Tales: The began teaching at the same university Use of Oral Narratives in Religious (in the fields of literature, drama and Sermons in Kenya” (Folklore: Electronic folklore), and in 1995 became a member Journal of Folklore, 13 [2000] 103-110) and of the International Society for Folk “Dawn of a New Era: Song and Dance Narrative Research, taking a regular and in Kenya’s Multi-Party Elections 2002” active part in the society’s congresses (he (Journal of Indian Folklore, 5,1 [2003]).1 All Cultural Analysis 9 (2010): 1-4 © 2010 by The University of California. All rights reserved 1 Terry Gunnell In Memorium: Ezekiel Alembi: of these works, dealing with his local a memorable visit to Kenya in 2007, Luhya people in his old home district of dealt with the essentially performative Bunyore (where he is now buried), show nature of storytelling—and the idea that a deep love and respect for his Kenyan if Africans had drawn up the borders culture, along with a firm belief that it between folklore genres and types of deserved equal attention to European art rather than Europeans, these borders and American folklore, and a sense that would have been very different (and the new generations of Kenyans should more multidisciplinary). As anyone grow up feeling a sense of pride in their could see when watching Ezekiel tell local culture and history, rather than stories, appearance, gesture, expression, a feeling of hopelessness or inferiority tone, rhythm, music and context were in comparison to the European culture as important as the words involved. I they meet daily in the media. This have a clear memory of the back half of same feeling of pride was reflected in a conference bus slipping into amazed Ezekiel’s demands of guests: those of silence in order to overhear the stories of us who visited him should experience Kenya he was privately—but loudly— Kenya as the Kenyans understood it, telling me. rather than from the balcony of a large The same interest in performance hotel or a university apartment. It was and drama could be seen in Ezekiel’s important that Kenyan culture should be tireless work on the annual Kenya understood from an African viewpoint if Schools and Colleges Drama Festival, it was to be understood more fully. for which he served as the National Ezekiel Alembi’s respect and hopes Chairman. These unique festivals, in for the potential of the young people of which hundreds of students of all ages his country (who he saw as representing and tribes come together to compete a concrete dream for a better future) were in plays and dance dramas they have similarly reflected in the over forty five put together themselves about subjects novels and biographies that he wrote that matter to their lives (ranging from for young Kenyan readers, something AIDS to children’s armies, government that earned him not only a literary prize corruption and genital mutilation), are in 2003 but also the respect of his peers an experience in themselves. They are in various spheres of life. Most of these also a clear statement of belief in the free books have a deliberately strong moral speech and increasing mutual respect that and educational message showing young recent generations of Kenyan children people fighting their way past immense had achieved after years of dictatorship. difficulties to find safety and achieve For Ezekiel, these children and their art new self respect in a changing world, represented a symbol of peaceful hope, principally if they manage to build on as well as a firm belief in the future and the older values of their culture.

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