Ohangla performance as a vehicle for transforming gender consciousness among the Luo of Kenya

Abstract

This paper interrogates the role Ohangla performance has played in transforming the Luo community’s gender consciousness. The analytical procedure was informed by the theories of gender, advanced by the concepts of Butler’s and de Beauvoir. Their theories played a significant role in the analysis of gender related practices integrated and displayed in the Ohangla performances. Thus the study argued that since gender is performance, it should be seen as a fluid variable which shift and change in relation to the social context. Through ethnographic method of data collection, the study attempted to understand the ways in which culture, on one hand, and the performer of the Ohangla, on the other hand, adjusts to the cultural modification in informing the Luo community about the cultural changes with an aim of transforming the Luo community’s gender consciousness. The study sampled respondents among the Luo Ohangla artists and their audience drawn from Siaya County’s Bondo and Rarieda sub-counties. Two sets of data were collected for this study; they comprised some Ohangla performances and information about the artists' use of Ohangla performance as a vehicle for transforming social consciousness. Data was collected mainly using participant’s observation and in-depth interviews. Recording was done by taking field notes, making comments, and videotaping Ohangla performances. The data was analyzed qualitatively. The study offered insights on the understanding of the contemporary Luo Ohangla performances and the social transformations Ohangla performance had created overtime so as to conform to the current social demands of the Luo society.