Popular Culture and Political Repression: The Rejection of Political Repression through Language

Abstract

This paper does a Critical Discourse Analysis on popular songs in Kenya to show that the artists are cognizant of the evils committed by the political elite and condemn them. The paper investigates, analyzes and interprets discourse in Kikuyu popular songs to show how language has been used resist oppression by the political class in Kenya. The Kikuyu popular artists use language to represent the political leadership in Kenya, condemning them for misuse of their positions to oppress the citizenry. Popular music can be a site of political discourse, it and a field to challenge the elite’s dominant ideology. People do not consume popular culture mindlessly and passively, instead they use it in their lives in innovative ways. The artists aim at emancipating the masses through their songs. To create a common ground with their listeners, the artists first categorize the leaders as greedy and selfish by highlighting their evils. The artists use language as tool to advance the welfare of the nation by castigating those in leadership. Using the analytical tools of CDA, this paper points out that popular culture is not just for entertainment but a powerful tool for advocating for proper utilization of national resources and condemning the excesses of those in authority