Robert W. Blunt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226655611
- eISBN:
- 9780226655895
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226655895.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
Many observers of Kenya’s complicated history see causes for concern, from the use of public office for private gain to a constitutional structure historically lopsided towards the executive branch. ...
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Many observers of Kenya’s complicated history see causes for concern, from the use of public office for private gain to a constitutional structure historically lopsided towards the executive branch. Yet efforts from critics and academics to diagnose the country’s problems do not often consider what these fiscal and political issues mean to ordinary Kenyans. How do Kenyans express their own political understanding, make sense of governance, and articulate what they expect from their leaders? For Money and Elders addresses these questions by turning to the political, economic, and religious signs in circulation in Kenya today. The book examines how Kenyans attempt to make sense of political instability caused by the uncertainty of authority behind everything from currency to title deeds. When the symbolic order of a society is up for grabs, violence may seem like an expedient way to enforce the authority of signs. Drawing on fertile concepts of sovereignty, elderhood, counterfeiting, acephaly, and more, the book explores phenomena as diverse as the destabilization of ritual “oaths,” public anxieties about Satanism with the advent of democratic reform, and mistrust of official signs. The result is a fascinating glimpse into Kenya’s past and present and a penetrating reflection on meanings of violence in African politics.Less
Many observers of Kenya’s complicated history see causes for concern, from the use of public office for private gain to a constitutional structure historically lopsided towards the executive branch. Yet efforts from critics and academics to diagnose the country’s problems do not often consider what these fiscal and political issues mean to ordinary Kenyans. How do Kenyans express their own political understanding, make sense of governance, and articulate what they expect from their leaders? For Money and Elders addresses these questions by turning to the political, economic, and religious signs in circulation in Kenya today. The book examines how Kenyans attempt to make sense of political instability caused by the uncertainty of authority behind everything from currency to title deeds. When the symbolic order of a society is up for grabs, violence may seem like an expedient way to enforce the authority of signs. Drawing on fertile concepts of sovereignty, elderhood, counterfeiting, acephaly, and more, the book explores phenomena as diverse as the destabilization of ritual “oaths,” public anxieties about Satanism with the advent of democratic reform, and mistrust of official signs. The result is a fascinating glimpse into Kenya’s past and present and a penetrating reflection on meanings of violence in African politics.
Harri Englund
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226498768
- eISBN:
- 9780226499093
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226499093.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
When Breeze FM Radio, in the provincial Zambian town of Chipata, hired an elderly retired school teacher in 2003, no one anticipated the skyrocketing success that would follow. A self-styled ...
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When Breeze FM Radio, in the provincial Zambian town of Chipata, hired an elderly retired school teacher in 2003, no one anticipated the skyrocketing success that would follow. A self-styled grandfather on air, Gogo Breeze seeks intimacy over the airwaves and dispenses advice on a wide variety of grievances and transgressions by using idiomatic Chinyanja / Chichewa. Multiple voices are broadcast and juxtaposed through call-ins and dialogue, but free speech finds its ally in the radio elder who, by allowing people to be heard and supporting their claims, reminds authorities of their obligations toward the disaffected. This book is a detailed study of the popular radio personality that addresses broad questions of free speech in Zambia and beyond. By drawing on ethnographic insights into political communication, the book presents multivocal morality as an alternative to dominant Euro-American perspectives, displacing the simplistic notion of voice as individual personal property—an idea common in both policy and activist rhetoric. Instead, the book focuses on the creativity and polyphony of Zambian radio while raising important questions about hierarchy, elderhood, and ethics in the public sphere.Less
When Breeze FM Radio, in the provincial Zambian town of Chipata, hired an elderly retired school teacher in 2003, no one anticipated the skyrocketing success that would follow. A self-styled grandfather on air, Gogo Breeze seeks intimacy over the airwaves and dispenses advice on a wide variety of grievances and transgressions by using idiomatic Chinyanja / Chichewa. Multiple voices are broadcast and juxtaposed through call-ins and dialogue, but free speech finds its ally in the radio elder who, by allowing people to be heard and supporting their claims, reminds authorities of their obligations toward the disaffected. This book is a detailed study of the popular radio personality that addresses broad questions of free speech in Zambia and beyond. By drawing on ethnographic insights into political communication, the book presents multivocal morality as an alternative to dominant Euro-American perspectives, displacing the simplistic notion of voice as individual personal property—an idea common in both policy and activist rhetoric. Instead, the book focuses on the creativity and polyphony of Zambian radio while raising important questions about hierarchy, elderhood, and ethics in the public sphere.
Robert W. Blunt
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226655611
- eISBN:
- 9780226655895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226655895.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
The introduction seeks to add to, but also move beyond more sociological analyses of elder authority by reviewing classic works on the eldership complex through the category of sovereignty. The work ...
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The introduction seeks to add to, but also move beyond more sociological analyses of elder authority by reviewing classic works on the eldership complex through the category of sovereignty. The work of scholars like E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s Nuer, Monica Wilson, and Paul Spencer constitute a platform for an historical anthropology of elderhood in their mutually supplemental attempts to define elderhood substantively, relationally, and diachronically. The introduction makes a case for the continued relevance of historical and critical approaches to the study of religion and politics. By attending to how Kenyans have popularly understood sovereignty over time, and how different social actors have attempted to exclusively protect, usurp, inhabit, and enact particular forms and processes of power and authority, the book asserts the ethnographic and historical basis for anthropological theory production.Less
The introduction seeks to add to, but also move beyond more sociological analyses of elder authority by reviewing classic works on the eldership complex through the category of sovereignty. The work of scholars like E.E. Evans-Pritchard’s Nuer, Monica Wilson, and Paul Spencer constitute a platform for an historical anthropology of elderhood in their mutually supplemental attempts to define elderhood substantively, relationally, and diachronically. The introduction makes a case for the continued relevance of historical and critical approaches to the study of religion and politics. By attending to how Kenyans have popularly understood sovereignty over time, and how different social actors have attempted to exclusively protect, usurp, inhabit, and enact particular forms and processes of power and authority, the book asserts the ethnographic and historical basis for anthropological theory production.
Harri Englund
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226498768
- eISBN:
- 9780226499093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226499093.003.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter introduces free speech as a value that must be studied ethnographically in specific historical contexts. The perspective from provincial Zambia challenges the focus on Ancient Greece, ...
More
This chapter introduces free speech as a value that must be studied ethnographically in specific historical contexts. The perspective from provincial Zambia challenges the focus on Ancient Greece, the French Revolution, and the First Amendment in the literature on free speech. It also challenges a more critical perspective on free speech as fearless speech, based on Foucault's definition of parrhêsia. By drawing on observations about Gogo Breeze's hierarchical and yet multivocal approach to public speech, as well as on other anthropological studies on political communication, the chapter prepares the ground for the rest of the chapters. It also introduces the history of radio broadcasting in Zambia and particularly the use of radio personalities. The chapter introduces as a key theme the relationship between Breeze FM's need to generate revenue and its founder's vision of public service. A discussion of anthropological work on past and present forms of elderhood in Africa precedes a final section on the research that this book is based on.Less
This chapter introduces free speech as a value that must be studied ethnographically in specific historical contexts. The perspective from provincial Zambia challenges the focus on Ancient Greece, the French Revolution, and the First Amendment in the literature on free speech. It also challenges a more critical perspective on free speech as fearless speech, based on Foucault's definition of parrhêsia. By drawing on observations about Gogo Breeze's hierarchical and yet multivocal approach to public speech, as well as on other anthropological studies on political communication, the chapter prepares the ground for the rest of the chapters. It also introduces the history of radio broadcasting in Zambia and particularly the use of radio personalities. The chapter introduces as a key theme the relationship between Breeze FM's need to generate revenue and its founder's vision of public service. A discussion of anthropological work on past and present forms of elderhood in Africa precedes a final section on the research that this book is based on.
Harri Englund
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780226498768
- eISBN:
- 9780226499093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226499093.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, African Cultural Anthropology
This chapter charts the radio personality's life history from his early years to his profession as a school teacher before he became the most popular voice at Breeze FM. The chapter discusses the ...
More
This chapter charts the radio personality's life history from his early years to his profession as a school teacher before he became the most popular voice at Breeze FM. The chapter discusses the discrepancies between his experiences and the sense of a village elder that he projected as Gogo Breeze. It emphasizes the mass-mediated nature of his elderhood and his in-depth knowledge of the Chinyanja / Chichewa language. The chapter introduces some of the recurrent idioms on his programs. It also describes Gogo Breeze's contribution to the radio station's revenue and his relationships with various figures of authority in Chipata, the town where the station is based.Less
This chapter charts the radio personality's life history from his early years to his profession as a school teacher before he became the most popular voice at Breeze FM. The chapter discusses the discrepancies between his experiences and the sense of a village elder that he projected as Gogo Breeze. It emphasizes the mass-mediated nature of his elderhood and his in-depth knowledge of the Chinyanja / Chichewa language. The chapter introduces some of the recurrent idioms on his programs. It also describes Gogo Breeze's contribution to the radio station's revenue and his relationships with various figures of authority in Chipata, the town where the station is based.
