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HIP-HOP LIFE AND LIVELIHOOD IN NAIROBI, KENYA By JOHN ERIK TIMMONS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 John Erik Timmons To my parents, John and Kathleen Timmons, my brothers, James and Chris Timmons, and my wife, Sheila Onzere ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of a PhD requires the support of many people and institutions. The intellectual community at the University of Florida offered incredible support throughout my graduate education. In particular, I wish to thank my committee members, beginning with my Chair Richard Kernaghan, whose steadfast support and incisive comments on my work is most responsible for the completion of this PhD. Luise White and Brenda Chalfin have been continuous supporters of my work since my first semester at the University of Florida. Abdoulaye Kane and Larry Crook have given me valuable insights in their seminars and as readers of my dissertation. The Department of Anthropology gave me several semesters of financial support and helped fund pre-dissertation research. The Center for African Studies similarly helped fund this research through a pre-dissertation fellowship and awarding me two years’ support the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship. Another generous Summer FLAS Fellowship was awarded through Yale’s MacMillan Center Council on African Studies. My language training in Kiswahili was carried out in the classrooms of several great instructors, Rose Lugano, Ann Biersteker, and Kiarie wa Njogu. The United States Department of Education generously supported this fieldwork through a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 7 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10 Preface ................................................................................................................... 10 Introducing MC Blak................................................................................................ 11 Introducing Dandora ............................................................................................... 15 Background and Description of Research Methods ................................................ 19 Theoretical Relevance ............................................................................................ 29 Music and Time ...................................................................................................... 39 Structure of the Dissertation ................................................................................... 42 Ethnographic Interludes .......................................................................................... 43 Dandora Hip-Hop Archive ....................................................................................... 43 2 WATCHING TIME ................................................................................................... 45 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 45 Structure of the Chapter .......................................................................................... 50 Colonizing Time ...................................................................................................... 54 Hip-Hop, Nation, Time ............................................................................................ 60 Mau Mau and Revolution ........................................................................................ 67 Analyzing the Visual Aesthetics .............................................................................. 74 Matigari Doesn’t Even Have a Plot of Land ............................................................ 91 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 97 3 TRANSLATE THIS ............................................................................................... 101 Revolutionary Hip-Hop and Civic Virtue ................................................................ 102 Zakah, “Native Son” .............................................................................................. 104 Wenyeji and the Mau Mau Program ..................................................................... 106 Texts, Publics, and Time ....................................................................................... 112 Revolution and Translation ................................................................................... 114 Generation and Translation .................................................................................. 117 Translation and History ......................................................................................... 119 Hip-Hop History in Dandora .................................................................................. 124 Origin and Imitation ............................................................................................... 127 Translation and Difference .................................................................................... 132 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 136 5 Postscript: The End of the Beginning .................................................................... 140 4 KAH’S VISION ...................................................................................................... 149 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 149 Universalism and Global Hip-Hop ......................................................................... 151 “That Ghetto is Just a Hellhole” ............................................................................ 155 All Over the World ................................................................................................. 163 “The Nairobi Sewer” .............................................................................................. 167 Translation and the Remainder ............................................................................. 176 Kah’s Vision .......................................................................................................... 178 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 180 5 NAIROBBERY ...................................................................................................... 185 Interlude: Night Session ........................................................................................ 185 System of Thugs ................................................................................................... 189 Rada ..................................................................................................................... 197 This is How We Livin’ ............................................................................................ 200 Interlude: Electricity .............................................................................................. 219 6 BLAK..................................................................................................................... 224 7 GAZA .................................................................................................................... 246 8 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 256 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 264 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 275 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1 MC Mutant on top of the roof of a residential building in Kitengela, inside of which is the Higher Linxxs studio. Photos taken by Erik Timmons, while Mutant and Timmons were writing a song together. ........................................... 27 1-2 Erik Timmons idly sitting in front of a “No Idle Sitting” sign. ................................ 32 2-1 Digitally rendered film leader from Angalia Saa. ................................................. 75 2-2 Six images used at the beginning of Angalia Saa............................................... 76 2-3 Three alternate images of Dedan Kimathi. ......................................................... 79 2-4 Mural of Dedan Kimathi in Dandora “Base Camp.” Photo taken by author in 2012. .................................................................................................................. 82 2-5 Images of Kama and Kimathi from Angalia Saa. ................................................ 84 2-6 Image of actor hiding in video, Angalia Saa. ...................................................... 92 2-7 Images of actors in the video, Angalia Saa ........................................................ 92 2-8 Actor running through Nairobi streets in Angalia Saa. .......................................