The construal of masculinities by Nyatiti musicians among the Luo of Siaya County, Kenya

Abstract

In recent years, interest on the phenomenon of masculinity has captured the attention of scholars from great varieties of fields. Music has not been an exemption from this emerging curiosity. However, it is worth noting that in African traditional music, which is the attention of this article, the expression of masculinities has been portrayed as part of gender performativity that is expressed in defined social functions with particular reference to Luo culture. This paper attempts to analyze various instances in which selected traditional nyatiti musicians express emerging social competition for masculine spaces between males and females in the Luo society. This article argues for the likeliness of the concept of masculinity to be expressive of activities of both male and female spaces. Surprisingly, the emerging manifestation of the new conceptualization of masculinity has not escaped even the attention of traditional musicians among the rural population of Kenya. The paper therefore not only investigates the manifestation of this concept but also analyzes its implication among members of the community as well as the wider society.