‘The South in the North’: Worlding Kenyanness in Alex Chamwada’s TV series Daring Abroad

Abstract

ABSTRACT Recently, there has been a proliferation of narratives that recount the daily experiences of Africans in White spaces. However, the scholarship on how Black people navigate predominantly White spaces has remained scanty. This article aims to help fill this gap by interrogating how Kenyans abroad negotiate, re-imagine and maintain their Kenyanness, especially in Euro-American urban spaces. This article argues that the Daring Abroad TV series by Alex Chamwada re-imagines, resituates and worlds Kenyanness through retention and continual use of Kenyan food and Sheng' as a lingua franca. The paper locates itself within the Bhabhasquan idea of third space and Afropolitanism theory in interpreting the use of Sheng’ language and Kenyan food in Euro-American urban spaces. Employing a lit-crit methodology, the paper mines data comprising running motifs, tropes, and themes found in narrations of Kenyans abroad in these episodes. The argument developed is that Chamwada’s show Daring Abroad is not just about how Kenyans are conquering Majuu [abroad] but also a show deconstructing the idea of home as a geographical place by presenting it as a state of mind using Kenyan food and Sheng' language to craft a worlding of Kenyanness in the globalised world that threatens and constantly ignores its existence.