A socio-cultural understanding of death: A genre analysis of obituaries in a Kenyan newspaper

Abstract

Obituaries are used to publicly announce death, giving details that can be used to identify the deceased. This article aims to analyse obituaries appearing in a Kenyan newspaper. Specifically, it investigates the schematic structure and language used with the aim of finding out the social perception and attitudes that Kenyans have towards the dead. The data comprise 356 announcements collected from the Daily Nation, one of the leading dailies in Kenya. The data are analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The genre analysis of the data reveals six obligatory moves in the structure of obituaries with some elements within the moves being optional. The research concludes that obituaries in Kenya can be considered as a genre with a distinct structure. The social cultural perceptions, values and attitudes that society has towards death greatly influence the language used in the writing of obituaries