Joseph Kamaru’s Music:Cutting with "Words, Not Swords"

Abstract

With a detailed analysis of Joseph Kamaru, his music and the adept use and knowledge of the Gĩkũyũ language and traditions in his songs, this paper explores the ambiguity of the musician alongside the contradictions of postcolonial Kenya. Discussing Kamaru, the famous Gĩkũyũ musician in Kenya, the paper examines how musicians are always caught up in the webs of ambiguities and contradictions of the postcolony. The argument is that music is not always a site of subversion, but that the moment of production of a certain piece plays a crucial role. Kamaru’s character vacillates between two extremes – as a praise singer and as a critic to the same regime in a period of six years. However, I argue that everyday living is always about negotiating and re-negotiating identities as well as shifting goalposts.