Moulding and shaping space: Editorial cartoons, terrorism and islamic space in Kenya

Abstract

Following the terror attacks in Nairobi on 7th August 1998, the 9/11 Attacks in New York and the Kikambala hotel bombings in November 2002, editorial cartoons in the Kenyan press have come under close scrutiny for their ability to capture the dominant discourses on ‘the war on terror.’ As expected, Islam, already seeking to assert itself across the country, has found itself at the core of a (spatial) discourse on terrorism. Using Lefebvre’s concept of the production of space (complemented by elements of semiotics) this paper interrogates the relationship between (social) space in Kenya on one hand and Islam, the media and terrorism on the other