“Innovation and Change in Social Construction of Gender as Depicted in Gikuyu Songs”

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the transformations in social construction of gender among the Gikuyu community in Kenya. The article does this by interrogating how modern Gikuyu songs have been modified to remove gender misrepresentation and create new identities. Data was collected through field research and the songs discussed here were purposefully sampled from the reservoir of the data collected during the field work. The discussion shows that songs are adapted and adjusted to suit the occasion or situation. This adaptation and change was necessitated by the fact that Gikuyu traditional songs were despotic to women hence modern singers have found the need for modification to counteract the oppressive nature of traditional songs. As a genre, song is seen as the most flexible in Gikuyu oral literature and has contributed enormously in bringing about change in social construction of gender in the community.