Browsing by Author "Wanjiru, Elizabeth"

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    “Innovation and Change in Social Construction of Gender as Depicted in Gikuyu Songs”
    (2015-09) Wanjiru, Elizabeth; Kaburi, Colomba; Waita, Njogu
    The purpose of this article is to examine the transformations in social construction of gender among the Gikuyu community in Kenya. The article does this by interrogating how modern Gikuyu songs have been modified to remove gender misrepresentation and create new identities. Data was collected through field research and the songs discussed here were purposefully sampled from the reservoir of the data collected during the field work. The discussion shows that songs are adapted and adjusted to suit the occasion or situation. This adaptation and change was necessitated by the fact that Gikuyu traditional songs were despotic to women hence modern singers have found the need for modification to counteract the oppressive nature of traditional songs. As a genre, song is seen as the most flexible in Gikuyu oral literature and has contributed enormously in bringing about change in social construction of gender in the community.
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    Resistance and Subversion of Traditional Social Construction of Gender in Gikuyu Narratives, Songs and Proverbs”.
    (2015-06) Wanjiru, Elizabeth; Kaburi, Dr. Colomba; Njogu, Zachary
    This paper explores gender relations in Gikuyu oral literature. It focuses on resistance and subversion to male dominance in narratives, proverbs and songs. The study noted that proverbs depict women subordination in the Gikuyu community probably because they were a male genre. Although narratives presented women as subordinate, there were episodes in Gikuyu narratives that demonstrated resistance and subversion to the established patriarchal order. Songs on the other hand reveal that a new approach to gender issues is inevitable, evidenced in the way modern Gikuyu musicians use their lyrics to shed light on how to deal with gender relations; proposing new modes of behavior that help women to resist subordination. The study concludes that oral literature, which bound the traditional Gikuyu community together; provide a platform for resistance against the society’s oppressive rules and norms that facilitate inequality in social construction of gender.