The city and the comic Gĩkũyũ comedies in Nairobi

Abstract

This paper starts on the premise that comedy performed in vernacular languages in Kenya has proliferated over the last two decades. Specific focus is on Gĩkũyũ language plays performed by Fanaka Arts, a theatre company based in Nairobi. I settle on three titles namely Nyoori Momori, Tũirio Twega and ITINA SACCO to demonstrate that: (a) these plays draw inspiration and thematic material from the everyday social cultural and political experiences and (b) they employ vernacular language and various literary techniques to provide entertainment as well as to impart didactic values to the audience. One feature that is common in the three plays is the marriage motif; there are convergences and divergences in the ways each reference and parody marriage, infidelity, urbanity, politics, and unpopular government policies. The key question I ask is: what makes these plays appealing to the audiences? References to the body as well as descriptions of sexuality in veiled figurative language are other common features in these plays. As such, it is the libidinous metaphors and sexual innuendoes in the titles of these lewd comedies that make them attractive to the audiences in Nairobi. Apart from being a form of entertainment, these monthly theatre performances in Gĩkũyũ language enable the urban middle class to connect with their village and cultural roots. Moreover, through comedy, they articulate what may be considered as trite social-cultural issues in ways that other conventional media may not achieve. As such, these comedies make people to reflect upon and laugh at themselves concomitantly. The hilarious depictions of various social concerns can also be considered as subversive and aesthetic means of political critique.