Presentation: Mwomboko – History, Performance and Beyond By Drs Cecile Feza Bushidi & Peter Muhoro Mwangi, Sept. 5 2017 @ BIEA

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Date: September 5, 2017
Venue: BIEA Seminar Room, Laikipia Road, Kileleshwa
Time: 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

About
In this discussion, we wish to present our research project about a comprehensive narrative of the mwomboko dance, song and poetry from the late 1930s until present day. Mwomboko is a Gikuyu performance genre that emerged between the late 1930s and the early 1940s in the southern districts of Central Kenya as a traditional cum modern dance performed by young people and newly married couples. In postcolonial Kenya, the style evolved as a living Gikuyu tradition, various groups reviving its choreographic, musical and aesthetic composition as part of regional and national cultural festivals, agricultural shows, and national celebrations such as Madaraka Day and Jamhuri Day. From embodied oral stories to transmit to younger generations to rural associations providing their members with financial support, we inquire about the developmental features of mwomboko in Gikuyu everyday life. We also seek to draw attention to the performance repertoire within which mwomboko is embedded, inscribing performers within local and national narratives that sustain debates about Gikuyu popular imagineries, ethnicity and nationalism.

http://www.biea.ac.uk/event/mwomboko-history-performance-and-beyond/