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————— Gender Roles in African Oral Literature

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————— Gender Roles in African Oral Literature JOHN M. KOBIA ————— º Gender Roles in African Oral Literature A Case Study of Initiation Songs Among the Igembe People of Meru of Kenya A BSTRACT This article examines and critically analyses gender images in initiation songs among the Igembe community, an African ethnic group of the Eastern Bantu in Kenya. The concept of gender is traced from Plato’s time to the twenty-first century and placed within the Igembe people’s world-view, using initiation songs as a point of reference. It is revealed that both man and woman play crucial and complementary roles in the socio-economic life of the Igembe community. However, despite the crucial role that women play, they are devalued owing to societal attitudes and beliefs, as is evident in the initiation songs analysed. Historical Background of the Igembe People HIS ARTICLE FOCUSES ON ONE AFRICAN COMMUNITY, the Igembe people of Meru of Kenya. The Meru are a Bantu-speaking community with nine subtribes. These subtribes include the Imenti, T 1 Tharaka, Mwimbi, Chuka, Miitine, Tigania, Muthambi, Igoji, and Igembe. Due to their diverse cultural differences, this article focuses on one of the nine sub-tribes – the Igembe. The Igembe people inhabit Meru North District in the Eastern Province of Kenya. Like other Meru groups, the Igembe trace their origin from Mbwaa.2 The Igembe people are neighbours to the Tharaka, Tigania, Kamba, and Boran. 1 W.H. Laughton, The Meru (The Peoples of Kenya 10; Nairobi: Ndia Kuu, 1944); Daniel Nyaga, Customs and Traditions of the Meru (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1997). 2 According to oral tradition, Mbwaa (also Mboa or Mbwa) was a mass of water that the Meru people crossed. They were in bondage to people who were called Nguo ntuune because they wore red clothes. For a fuller discussion of the origin of Meru community of Kenya, see Nyaga, Customs and Traditions of the Meru. African Cultures and Literatures: A Miscellany, ed. Gordon Collier (Matatu 41; Amsterdam & New York NY: Rodopi, 2012). 390 JOHN M. KOBIA a Basically, the Igembe people are agriculturalists. They grow crops, notably maize, beans, millet, coffee, tea, and miraa,3 as well as rearing livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, and donkeys. Like most African societies, the Igembe are patriarchal. The man is the head of the household and the natural leader in all matters pertaining the family and the wider community. The traditional Igembe society had elaborate and well-designed rituals. Among these rituals is circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls. In all these there were songs that accompanied each ritual. Songs are important agents of gender socialization in Igembe society. The Concept of Gender The concept of gender does not refer to woman only as been misconceived or misunderstood in some quarters. Gender entails the “relationship between man and women, the ways in which the roles of men and women are socially constructed and the cultural interpretations of the biological differences be- tween men and women.”4 In an attempt to define what is gender, Mrutu states that it is a set of cul- tural roles, a mast, a straitjacket in which men and women dance their unequal dance.5 It has been argued over the years that women play unequal roles com- pared to their male counterparts. This is even reflected in most African oral literature, including song. Gender as a social construct is acquired, constructed, and can be decon- structed bya society through various agents of socialization, and oral literature is no exception. Gender roles in society are socially and historically construc- ted through socialization. In most African societies, gender socialization starts at home, reinforced by the education system and perpetuated through social institutions, especially rites of passage. In African societies, song is an impor- tant and versatile vehicle of gender socialization. One of the important rites of passage in most African societies, the Igembe community included, is the initiation. Initiation ceremonies for boys and girls 3 Miraa (also known as khat, and scientifically as cathadulus edis) is a mild stimu- lant shrub grown in parts of Meru North District in Kenya. 4 Collette A. Suda, “Gender, Culture and Environmental Conservation in Western Kenya: Contextualizing Community Participation and Choice of Techniques,” Nordic Journal of African Studies 9.1 (20001): 32. 5 E.K. Mrutu, “Gender Issues and Communication,” paper presented at the 11th ACCE Conference, 9–15 October 1998, Nairobi. .
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