“Kuna Corona fake na Og”: The Role of Postcolonial Laughter during the COVID-19 Outbreak in Tanzania

Abstract

Scholars are basically divided in their perception of the functions of postcolonial humour. One block ascribes it to the role of criticising postcolonial governments for maladministration. Another group ascribes it to ridiculing the masses for their passivity to unjust rulers. In addition, there is also a middle group that does not specifically assign the art to either side. Taking these varying opinions as a point of departure and the novelty of COVID-19 humour, the researcher adapted multimodality and social semiotics to analyse and ascertain the role of postcolonial humour used in debates about COVID-19 in Tanzania during the peak of the malady. In this regard, the study reports that besides entertainment function, COVID-19 postcolonial humour reminded people from all walks of life to take responsibility in the fight against the disease. Thus, the findings confirm that postcolonial humour in social media, like other traditional African verbal arts, criticises undesirable societal practices regardless of a person’s social and political status.