Mchongoano and the ethnography of communication

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to give an ethnographic description of mchongoano in order to understand how it achieves its objectives. Mchongoano is a verbal duelling game popular with young people in Kenya but also appreciated by many adults for its humorous content. It has been compared to the American dozens and sounds (Githinji, 2006, 2007; Kihara & Schröder, 2012). This article analyses mchongoano with specific reference to the Ethnography-of-Communication framework first proposed by Dell Hymes (1974) and represented by the mnemonic acronym SPEAKING. The description and analyses of mchongoano offered in this paper show that mchongoano is a communicative event in its own right