Kutuma Salamu on Public Service Radio and the Performance of Popular Culture: Voice of Kenya from the 1960s to the 1980s

IF 0.9 2区社会学 Q2 CULTURAL STUDIES

Journal of African Cultural Studies Pub Date : 2023-04-03 DOI:10.1080/13696815.2023.2201419

Maureen Amimo, S. Waliaula

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Radio is one of the mass media technologies that were readily absorbed in and adapted to the patterns of construction and integration of communities. Among non-elite Kenyans, radio was inserted into their performative practice of greetings through a quasi-interactive programme known as kutuma salamu, which literally translates as “sending greetings.” This article analyses the practices of kutuma salamu, a significant popular cultural phenomenon that is worthy of academic attention for at least two reasons. First, Voice of Kenya was the only radio service operational in Kenya from the 1960s to 1980s and it was largely associated with the serious business of official government communication. Second, in form and substance, this programme was very similar to present-day popular digital social media, yet dates from a time before the invention of the internet. The article examines how this popular cultural phenomenon thrived by disrupting official public service radio and how it mediated the performance of social identities. The main argument here is that radio has always provided an opportunity for alternative voices to be heard, and some of these voices can be understood as metaphorical extensions of the performance of transgressive social identities.

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公共服务电台的库图玛·萨拉姆与大众文化的表现：20世纪60年代至80年代的肯尼亚之声

广播是一种很容易吸收和适应社区建设和融合模式的大众传媒技术。在肯尼亚的非精英阶层中，广播被插入到他们的问候表演实践中，通过一个被称为kutuma salamu的准互动节目，字面翻译为“发送问候”。这篇文章分析了库图玛萨拉姆的实践，这是一个重要的流行文化现象，值得学术界关注的原因至少有两个。首先，从1960年代到1980年代，肯尼亚之声是肯尼亚唯一一家运作的广播服务，它主要与政府官方通讯的严肃事务有关。其次，在形式和内容上，这个节目与当今流行的数字社交媒体非常相似，但它的历史可以追溯到互联网发明之前。本文探讨了这种流行的文化现象是如何通过扰乱官方公共广播服务而蓬勃发展的，以及它是如何中介社会身份的表现的。这里的主要论点是，广播一直提供了一个机会，让人们听到不同的声音，其中一些声音可以被理解为越轨社会身份表现的隐喻延伸。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of African Cultural Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

10.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes leading scholarship on African culture from inside and outside Africa, with a special commitment to Africa-based authors and to African languages. Our editorial policy encourages an interdisciplinary approach, involving humanities, including environmental humanities. The journal focuses on dimensions of African culture, performance arts, visual arts, music, cinema, the role of the media, the relationship between culture and power, as well as issues within such fields as popular culture in Africa, sociolinguistic topics of cultural interest, and culture and gender. We welcome in particular articles that show evidence of understanding life on the ground, and that demonstrate local knowledge and linguistic competence. We do not publish articles that offer mostly textual analyses of cultural products like novels and films, nor articles that are mostly historical or those based primarily on secondary (such as digital and library) sources. The journal has evolved from the journal African Languages and Cultures, founded in 1988 in the Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. From 2019, it is published in association with the International African Institute, London. Journal of African Cultural Studies publishes original research articles. The journal also publishes an occasional Contemporary Conversations section, in which authors respond to current issues. The section has included reviews, interviews and invited response or position papers. We welcome proposals for future Contemporary Conversations themes.