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Embodied Performances in Nairobi Underground Hip Hop

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Embodied Performances in Nairobi Underground Hip Hop Imperfect Resistance: Embodied Performances in Nairobi Underground Hip Hop DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By RaShelle Ranae Peck, M.A. Graduate Program in Comparative Studies The Ohio State University 2014 Dissertation Committee: Barry Shank, Advisor Nina Berman Maurice Stevens Copyright by RaShelle Ranae Peck 2014 Abstract My dissertation project, Imperfect Resistance: Embodied Performances in Nairobi Underground Hip Hop, explores how hip hop practitioners in Kenya enact agentive subjectivity through the creative maneuverability of bodily performances. Non- commercial rappers operate from a post-Mau Mau underground cultural aesthetic of resistance, which harnesses the long trajectories of narrativized political struggles and underground hip hop culture to challenge categories of difference and circumvent disciplinary regimes that encode bodies. Underground performances materialize out of long trajectories of the performative practices of Congolese dance, US rap, dancehall, and Kenyan Benga, which include the knotty transnational history of the black body as propertied and commodified. Hip hop gestures and stances contest an environment where state repression, a restrictive music industry, and the struggle for economic security all work to create constraining conditions for many practitioners. These embodied enactments are heavily masculinized, and male and female artists use this embodied knowledge to both celebrate and challenge hip hop’s gendered spaces. Artists develop creative gestures and movements that are in conversation with both larger historic, cultural, and economic realities, as well as their racial, national, and gender subjectivities. Rappers create music videos, which espouse their subjectivities as artists and allow them to participate in a global rap culture. For these reasons, hip hop performances hold ii transformative possibilities for disavowing disciplining structures, developing strategies of subversion, and producing new forms of embodied knowledge. iii Dedication To Nakami and Ajani iv Acknowledgments There are so many people to acknowledge. I want to thank my committee, Barry Shank, Nina Berman, and Maurice Stevens. I am grateful to Barry for the feedback on countless drafts, long meetings, and continued assistance along with way. Thank you to Nina Berman for wonderful feedback and enlightening conversations about Kenyan politics and social issues. And Maurice, your encouragement has been needed and valuable. Other people in Comparative Studies deserve recognition, including Kwaku Korang, Wen Tsai, Lori Wilson, and Elizabeth Marsh. I thank Dan Reff for wonderful feedback and assistance in publishing. Outside of OSU, scholars like Andrea Bachner, Diane Ciekawy, Walter Hawthorne, Vibert Cambridge, and Dauda Abubakar have provided support and guidance. Several scholars during my undergraduate career at Kalamazoo, many unknowingly, encouraged my intellectual interests. I would like to thank Matthew Filner for introducing me to Marxism, R. Amy Elman for modeling a type of feminist interrogation that has stayed with me through the years, and Marigene Arnold for encouraging critical thinking and transnational study. I acknowledge the mighty Rita Trimble, my writing partner and friend, for sticking with me through doubt, exhaustion, and hardship. We made it! Thank you to Mara Penrose for not only feedback in scholarship, but working alongside me in several academic capacities. I acknowledge Michael Murphy fondly, who helped me through v writing, and more importantly gardening. Nicole Vangas, I appreciate our friendship and your intelligence, and Kate Horigan the rising super-scholar, I am grateful for our brief writing exchange. So many Black women showed me how to navigate often hostile spaces. I recognize Jennifer Black, Tanikka Price, Carlotta Penn, Erica Butcher, and Othni Turner. Thank you to Jacquie Scott, and although your journey took you to the next life, I learned from your presence in this one. Fieldwork was no easy task. Asante sana, Janette Watila for coming with me to the most unique places and learning all about the underground (let’s do it again sometime). Lavenda Watila, Ruth Wekunda, and Anne Wekunda, I could not have done this work without your assistance. Manasseh and Diana Wekunda, your willingness to host me was selfless and invaluable; Azande zana, zana. I appreciate all of the artists, producers, and deejays that took time out to speak with me. The list is too long to list, but without your willingness to share music, debate topics, and speak with me, this project would not be what it is. Nimeshukuru sana, sana, sana. May your music reach all who need and want to hear it; upendo kwote. Your critical politics have taught me about my own modes of thinking and challenged them in beneficial ways. This project would have been difficult to execute without Philip Wekunda, the father of my children and my close friend, who helped endlessly with the rearing, but who also translated songs and helped arrange fieldwork trips. I recognize and appreciate all of the sacrifices you have made; it is difficult to express how much this means. A huge vi asante sana to Michael Wekunda and Katila Makokha for all of the assistance with childcare. Thank you to Jaja Yogo for help with lyrical translation and interpretation. I appreciate Alana Gracey and Kathy Bolden, who showed me what everyday resistance to white supremacy, sexism, and homophobia looks like through artistic modes of cultural production. There are others who have taught me a type of radical Afrocentric politic and Black-centered empowerment that I treasure, including my cohort at Kalamazoo College: Kim Henderson, Tamara Tucker, Kenyatta Tucker, and Sharika Crawford, among others. Perhaps without knowing, you have influenced me. My family has stood by me though a lot. To the family matriarch, the proud and strong Mabel Hill, this dissertation is for you. To my grandfather James Hill, my aunties Pamela Kisner and Gayle Flack, my aunt Nancy Peck, and my cousin Rishana Kisner— your presence, support, and teaching has made me a better person. My sister, Arika Peck, showed me through her own experiences, what it means to pursue higher education. I want to name my brother, Michael Peck, and my parents Steven Peck and Cynthia Peck as significant people who have shaped my life. To the people who are a part of a more broadly conceived family who have stood by me during this journey, one that is not only academic, but also spiritual. There are too many to name here, but I want to extend a heartfelt sentiment of gratitude to Maureen, Jude, Beth, Anita, Kim, Nita, Megan, Shon, John, Jamie, Julia, Sarah, Chet, Lisa, Mary, vii and Bruce. I will be sure to carry the messages of hope that you have taught me. Thank you. And last, to my children, the creative and conscientious Nakami Peck-Wekunda and the wilily trickster Ajani Peck-Wekunda, who continue to teach me about life, learning, and what is important. I hope the sacrifices I have made to attain this degree have been worth it. Please see this as inspiration for your own pursuits. viii Vita 1997 ...............................................................……...Hackett Catholic Central High School 2002…………………………………B.A. Interdisciplinary Degree, Kalamazoo College 2005.................................................................M.A. International Affairs, Ohio University 2008 to present……………….Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University Publications “Political Strictures and Latex Caricatures in Kenya: Buttressing Mzee Masculinity in The XYZ Show” Fields of Study Major Field: Comparative Studies ix Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita ..................................................................................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………...1 Chapter 2: “Hip hop is like a CV”: Compromises and Resistance within the Parallel Public……………………………………………….……………………………..……..58 Chapter 3: Music and Bodies, Discourse and Commodities……………....................... 143 Chapter 4: Politics of Shupavu…………………………………………………………219 Chapter 5: Performing Hip Hop Subjectivities………………….…………………......296 Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………….…………………... 394 Works Cited………………………………………………………………………….....401 x Chapter 1: Introduction Hip hop is a collection of embodied practices, and its meanings rest in the ways it is performed. Underground Kenyan rap practitioner Nafsi Huru demonstrates this when he confidently proclaims “Mi ni mtemi!” (I spit, or I flow) in his music video “Still Strong.” The force of the moment is in the way he articulates “mtemi.” He places the emphasis on te, following Swahili grammar, and as he says it he lunges slightly at the camera with his chest out, and then bobs quickly back and forth before quickly moving to the next lyric.1 What is important about this moment is not only the verbal affirmation of his skill, asserting that he can flow; it is how he uses bodily gestures
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