Imaging Socio-political Spaces in Selected Theatre Texts Aired on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Television, Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the imaging of socio-political spaces in selected theatre texts aired on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) television. The study analysed six episodes of each of the three selected texts namely: Vitimbi, Vioja Mahakamani, and Angel’s Diary with the intention of establishing how these television theatre texts managed to create and air content with socio-political undertones. The study recognised the fact that most theatrical productions in Kenya of the 1970s to the late 1990s were censored by government. Therefore, informed by the social-political milieu of theatre reception in Kenya, the study problematised theatre production in a state broadcaster against the background that television theatre draws its raw material from people‟s experiences. This approach to the study suggests possibilities of reading the selected texts against contemporary experiences in Kenya. Methodologically, the study applied content analysis of videotapes of the selected texts. The texts were purposively selected to ensure that episodes relevant to the study were subjected to critical analysis. In addition, the study was enriched by library research where relevant secondary sources were consulted and used. The study was guided by three objectives which were to: investigate how Vitimbi, Vioja Mahakamani and Angel’s Diary engage with socio-political issues of the moment beyond entertainment function; interrogate the strategies employed in Vitimbi, Vioja Mahakamani and Angel’s Diary in addressing socio-political issues in Kenya; and lastly to examine how Vitimbi, Vioja Mahakamani and Angel’s Diary contest and subvert discourses of domination and subjugation in Kenya. The study used postcolonial theory and semiotics literary theory as analytical tools. Using the postcolonial theory, the study examined various ways in which the selected texts address manifestations of discourses of domination, subjugation, equality, and agency. Postcolonial arguments from scholars such as Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Michael Foucault, and Edward Said were applied to appraise the problem under study. Additionally, the study used semiotics to analyse how signs and images signify more than what they stand for. Semiotics theory was particularly informative as I examined how the signs, characters, speech, setting among others are read metaphorically and symbolically in relation to the happenings in the society. Drawing its conclusions solely from the texts examined, the study established that despite KBC being a state broadcaster and having a mandate to air government-related policies and neutral themes, which to a large extent is the case, the selected television theatre texts analysed in the study artistically used unique strategies such as setting, characterisation, humuor, allegory, and journeys in imaging socio-political spaces as experienced in contemporary Kenya. The study recommends that studies be carried out on technical aspects and theatrical elements of popular television theatre. In addition, comparative studies of theatre texts aired on KBC and any other private media broadcaster in Kenya should be carried out. There is also need to carry out studies on the power of humuor in dictatorial regimes as advanced through popular television theatre.