The Portrayal of Non-gusii People in Banasungusia and Sagero Band Songs and Its Significance for Communal Coexistence

Abstract

This study set out to investigate how Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs portray non-Gusii people and the significance for communal coexistence of such portrayal. It leaned on the premise that Abagusii oral poetry has specific references targeting non-Gusii people, in addition to the fact that Gusii people have experienced conflicts not only with tribal neighbors but also with non-Gusii people within and without Gusii community. These experiences and the concernsraised in the portrayalsbeckoned my intention of investigating the communal coexistence of Gusii and non-Gusii people since they set a base for human relations. The study set to achieve three objectives: Investigate the major concerns presented in Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs on human relations, analyze the kind of images of non-Gusii people in Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs and how the said images are constructed, and interrogate the likely perceptions created in Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs and their projected significance for communal coexistence. The study was guided by the following hypotheses: that the driving force in Banasungusia and Sagero band songs is human relations, that Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs have used biased images towards constructing non-Gusii people, and that the perceptions created in Banasungusia, and Sagero Band songs have a major bearing on communal coexistence.The study was guided by three theories: ethnopoetics, which was handy in transcription and translation of the oral poems; the post-colonial theory of othering, which guided in investigating the strategies Banasungusia and Sagero songs have employed in constructing the non-Gusii people, and the sociological literary theories which guided in interrogating the notion of communal coexistence. Turning to research methodology, the study highly relied on onlooker observation method since it was analyzing already performed and recorded songs. This was then complemented by the digitally recorded telephone interview information from Banasungusia and Sagero singers. Further, on analysis of individual songs, the study was guided by pertinent questions which formed part of the analytical framework. These questions touched on the key concerns of the study like the issues on human relations that Banasungusia and Sagero Band songs are airing, the strategies used in the songs to construct the non-Gusii ix people, and the significance of such construction for communal coexistence of Gusii and non-Gusii people.The study found out that on airing their major concerns on human relations, like hatred and violence, the Banasungusia and Sagero songs employed strategies that positioned the non-Gusii people as the ‘other.’ Further, the study noted that the construction of ‘otherness’ involved perceptions and prejudices that are closely connected to communal coexistence of Gusii and non-Gusii people. For example, in one hand, ‘othering’ non-Gusii people positively, like being marriable, supportive and accomodating, would task the Gusii people to diffuse any ethnic tension that may seem to rise, and on the other hand, constructing the non-Gusii people negatively, like being idiotic, monstrious and violent, may make the Gusii people to contemptuously relate with them, a move likely to fuel ethinic tensions in the event that they a rise.